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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28536348">Adventures in Turm Isle</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talontype/pseuds/Talontype'>Talontype</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Owl House (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(no explicit) Sexual content, Adventure/Horror/Comedy/Romance/Drama, Amity pines harder than a douglas fir, Angst, Beta Lumity, Blood and Conflict, Body Horror (poisonous magic), F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Lumity, Luz is literally made of optimism, Now rated 'M' for Mother, Scary content, all the flavours of the painbow (abuse/trauma/fights/mortality/panic/tears/instability), my tags look so meannn there’s sweet stuff too T-T, snuggles, the Betas are co-dependent lunatics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 22:15:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>191,119</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28536348</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talontype/pseuds/Talontype</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Luz is psyched to go on a school field trip to The Shoulder, but something goes wrong and now she's in a totally different dimension?! Also there's her beanie-wearing, grumpy older alternate self to deal with. It's nice that Amity is here, but everything wants to eat them so this trip gets a 3.5/5 maximum.</p><p> </p><p>or: Luz and Amity have to survive the perils of an alternate dimension's Boiling Isles; The monsters are terrifying, the people are weird, plants can eat you and magic is poisonous.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Beta Amity / Beta Luz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>312</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>596</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologues and Portals</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>"Alright then. So you've got your bag, snacks, sleep bag stuff, glyph paper, spare snails, clothes for a week-"</p>
<p>Eda was listing off things that Luz had spent all of yesterday packing and unpacking, checking and re-checking and now that it was the morning of her first Hexside field trip (that wouldn't include fighting a tyrant and nearly losing people she cared about) she was bouncing in place with the eagerness to be off.</p>
<p>"Yep I've got everything I need Eda! Just gotta get to school now!" She said with a tone that loudly conveyed 'hint hint' although Eda seemed too distracted to pick up on it.</p>
<p>"I know, I know... Hey you didn't forget your cloak right? What about a knife? You know what, you can't go wrong with a little extra insurance on these trips, I'm going to go get you a knife." She turned on her heel back towards the Owl House where Hooty, King and Lillith were watching the exchange with a range of moods between them.</p>
<p>"Dear sister. I never thought I would see the day where you would display, dare I say it, <em>maternal hovering</em>." Lilith teased. Eda whirled on her with an accusatory finger and muttered, "Watch it, Lily."</p>
<p>King took advantage of the momentary lapse in Eda's attention to dart over to Luz for one last hug.</p>
<p>"You promise you'll come back, right Luz?" She held King's little paws in her hands and gave them a reassuring squeeze along with a caring but impatient smile.</p>
<p>"Of course I'm coming back King. And I'm sure I'll have all sorts of neat stories to tell you about The Left Shoulder when I do!"</p>
<p>King reluctantly accepted the answer and stepped away slowly. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, Luz threw a quick, "See you in a week everyone!", and darted off in the direction of Hexside School of Magic and Demonics before anyone's well-wishing could delay her a second longer. She could hear Hooty call out, "Hey Luz bring me back some fancy Shoulder snacks!" She waved in acknowledgement without turning.</p>
<p>Luz couldn't contain herself; the sounds of her boots hitting the ground freely as she jogged along were like music to her ears and she jumped into the air with an exited cheer. <em>First school trip on the Boiling Isles! A whole week with my friends!</em></p>
<p>"I don't think it's possible for anyone to be happier than I am right now!" She shouted out to no one in particular.</p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p>It was possible.</p>
<p>When she arrived at the school to the sight of multiple dragon-headed carriages parked, teachers corralling students, piles of luggage waiting to be loaded and her friends waving her over with eager smiles on their faces she had to take a moment to not explode into a million shards of happy.</p>
<p>"Luz! Over here. Hey are you feeling alright?" Willow asked as Luz practically floated over, dreamily taking in all the hustle and bustle of the trip preparations in full swing.</p>
<p>"Oh yeah Willow, I've never been better." She shifted her bag to her other shoulder, a bit awkward with her sleeping bag rolled up and tethered to the back of it. "I just can't believe we're finally here, I've really been looking forward to this!"</p>
<p>Gus folded his arms and adopted a sarcastic expression. "Oh gee, how could we have not noticed what with it being practically the only thing you've talked about all week." He smirked though; it was always entertaining to see his human friend so excited about something.</p>
<p>"Be nice, Gus, this is Luz's first time to The Shoulder after all! And there's plenty to look forward to." Willow chided gently. "Personally, I can't wait to visit the Armpit's Subterranean Flora Emporium. "</p>
<p>"Well I'm looking forward to The Spitesonium Institution; it has the largest collection of human historical artifacts in the whole Isles! Hey Luz, do you think we'll be allowed to try out the guillotines? The brochure wasn't clear..." Gus was eyeing his brochure critically; it was open to a section on the history of culinary tools humans had supposedly used throughout the ages.</p>
<p>Luz danced from foot to foot. "I don't know, Gus, but I'm very excited to find out!" She scanned the throng of students and teachers around them and spied a familiar flash of mint-green among the crowd.</p>
<p>"Amity!" She shouted, jumping on her tip-toes to get that extra couple of inches, "Hey Amity over here!"</p>
<p>The young witch was turning her head this way and that, trying to pin-point who was calling her. When she caught sight of Luz's frantic display, Luz was fairly sure the witch started chuckling to herself. Well, jumping around like a sugar-overloaded bunny might be childish, but she was <em>so ready </em>for this trip to begin!</p>
<p>"Why do you look so unhappy, I thought you really wanted to go on this trip." Amity teased playfully when she was close enough to be heard over the rest of the students.</p>
<p>"Ha ha, very funny." Luz quipped back. She noticed that Amity barely had anything with her other than a little pack no larger than a purse.</p>
<p>"Hey where's all your stuff? Surely that little bag isn't everything you're bringing for a week." She pointed at the cute little purse resting innocently against Amity's hip. With a little smirk, she pulled it forward and opened the flap on top. Then she reached into it and pulled out a textbook that was clearly too large to have been in there, but regardless was now in her hand.</p>
<p>"That's a witch's bag Luz," Willow supplied helpfully. She looked at the purse with a little bit of awe. "It holds a pocket dimension, so it fits an awful lot more you'd think. They're pretty exclusive."</p>
<p>Luz 'oooh'-ed over the bag for a moment and Amity stood up a bit straighter, proud to have shown her friend something she found so interesting. To Amity it was just a bag, but Luz managed to make even ordinary things seem special.</p>
<p>"Alright students! Line up at your assigned carriage now." One of the teachers called out over the chattering voices. Amity waved shyly at Luz and then darted off to go line up.</p>
<p>Willow gave Luz a regretful little smile. "It's too bad we can't all share a carriage. I guess we'll see you once we land." It was clear she was a little disappointed.</p>
<p>"But hey," Gus chimed in, "We can wave to you while we're flying! Just try not to fall out. Humans can't survive a impact after falling at terminal velocity, right?" He asked with a quizzical tilt of his chin. Luz obligingly shook her head. Then she leaned in conspiratorially, prompting the other two to do the same.</p>
<p>"You know, it looks like they're taking attendance while we're getting on, but once I get my seat I'm gonna sneak over to you guys instead." She grinned deviously and Willow made an approving noise in the back of her throat and winked. The two of them then headed over to their carriage and Luz bounded over to the one she knew was hers since getting the trip forms over a week ago. Now it was just a matter of being temporarily present at the right time...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>        Amity could already tell she was going to be bored the whole way there. The student next to her, whom she may have called a friend at one point before her definition of the word had evolved, was chattering non-stop and didn't seem to care if she was actually listening or not. Amity rested her elbow on the carriage's wooden taffrail and took a sip from her juice box while she peered out over the last of the students boarding their own flying vessels.</p>
<p>Suddenly, she spotted Luz covertly winding her way around the far side of one of the carriages. While the teachers were doing last-minute checks and going over pre-flight procedures, she was sneaking over to the one that Amity knew Willow and the other kid was on. It was obvious from the way she was sizing up the carriage's scaly leg that she intended to scale the side of it and join up with those two. Amity placed her juice box on the wooden rail and  crossed her arms over her chest, ears drooping somewhat. She wasn't jealous. There would be plenty of time for them to hang out during the field trip. She glanced back at where Luz was struggling to hold on while balancing her large pack and bedroll with her. Then she simply sank through the reptilian leg with a rippling effect and was gone.</p>
<p>Amity blinked. She blinked again. <em>Huh?</em></p>
<p>She didn't have long enough to even call over one of the professors, because a moment later she fell through her padded wooden seat. The only evidence that she had been there seconds ago was her abandoned juice box on the railing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>One moment she had been climbing her way up the scaly leg of one of the school's carriages and the next moment she was balancing in a black void with white lights whipping past her faster than she could keep up with.</p>
<p>Luz felt like she was floating under water, although she appeared to be moving far too quickly for that to be possible. She struggled to stay upright, and realized that she was holding her breath and had no idea if there was air here. Her arms flailed in panic for a few seconds and then, nearly stumbling, Luz realized she was back on solid ground again. She took in the trees and the sky that was mostly blotted out from them as a hopeful sign for her continued ability to breathe and took in a deep gulp of air. Yep, seemed like a respectful combination of elements to sustain her life functions, thank goodness.</p>
<p>She took another look around. This was definitely not the takeoff area outside of Hexside. She barely had any time to absorb the sudden appearance of an actual forest around her when a bone-vibrating roar made her snap towards a massive creature facing away from her on the edge of the semi-clearing they were in.</p>
<p>Someone was shouting angrily from that direction, it seemed like the beast had them cornered against a wall of close-knit trees and Luz immediately rushed towards both the shouting and the creature.</p>
<p>"HEY! Hey you! Over here!" Wildly waving her arms as if that would get its attention faster, she hastily pulled a light glyph out of one of her pockets and readied herself to blind the monster that was now pivoting around on its four massive paws to face her.</p>
<p>She was not prepared for what she saw.</p>
<p>From behind, the beast had seemed almost bear-like (albeit much larger) and she figured that a good blast of light would give her a chance to catch up with whoever had been shouting and help them beat a hasty retreat. What she had not expected were the corpses.</p>
<p>The beast's face seemed to be made of long, porous spines arranged around two angry eyes and a drooling mouth filled with sharp teeth. Dead bodies of various sorts of creatures were impaled on the spines, some fresh and bleeding down its face and others looking like they had been wedged in deeper, decaying for days or even weeks. The stench alone nearly knocked her out.</p>
<p>The horrible beast was fixing it's gaze on her almost quizzically, as if wondering what creature would possibly be foolish enough to intentionally attract its attention.</p>
<p>Eyes flicking between the carnage coating the beast's face and the mad bloodlust in its eyes, Luz found her normally hyper-reactive instincts shutting down as she just stood there staring at the thing that was about to kill her. Numbness crawled up her limbs and the light glyph in her hand was held in a death grip, utterly forgotten.</p>
<p>"Hey moron!"</p>
<p>No sooner had the shout rang out when a baseball bat covered in small sheets of paper careened with the side of the beast's face. Given the size of the huge hairy thing, a bat shouldn't have been much of a problem but the explosions that erupted between its head and said bat were enough to send the monster skidding on its paws with a deep shriek of pain.</p>
<p>Luz was knocked clear off of her feet by the shockwave and collided with the ground, knocking the wind out of her with a wheeze. Groaning, she distantly felt rocks digging into her back and shakily tried to get to her knees when rapid footsteps stomped up to her.</p>
<p>"If you're playing the part of a hero you're doing a shi-", the voice cut itself off and Luz looked up quickly at the young woman; she seemed to be taken aback by Luz's appearance.</p>
<p>Before she could fully process the person in front of her, Luz felt a hand roughly grabbing the back of her hoodie as the young woman pulled her into a mad sprint out of the clearing. The beast behind them was roaring furiously and trying to shake the blood out of its now ruined eye, ready to take up the chase again as soon as its vision cleared.</p>
<p>They ran until Luz felt like her lungs were going to eject right out of her ribcage and she collapsed in a heap. She focused blearily on the coarse grass of the forest floor peeking through her shaking fingers, gripping the ground to try and stop the wild spinning in her head.</p>
<p>She barely reacted when her partner in flight landed heavily next to her, gasping and tilting her face to the tree line to draw in as much precious oxygen as quickly as possible. She turned to say something to Luz but gets cut off by a wracking set of coughs instead.</p>
<p>"So, uh, that could have gone worse I guess." The young woman gasps after a moment of hacking, cocking her head to the side to take in her would-be saviour. Luz took a few more deep lungfuls of air and pushed herself up into a kneeling position, facing the other girl and seeing her properly for the first time.</p>
<p>She was wearing a beat-up jacket over a sweat-soaked shirt and her jeans had tears in the knees, the fibers stained brown from dirt and blood. She had a tattered but tough-looking backpack slung over her shoulder and in her hand a metal baseball bat covered in dents and scorch marks. The beanie on her head covered some of her strikingly familiar-coloured hair although two long locks hung freely in front of her ears. Her very human ears. And her face was eerily similar to-</p>
<p>"Oh my gosh! You look like ME! But older!" Luz burst out excitedly, pointing a finger right above the other girl's nose and making her go a bit cross-eyed with the gesture.</p>
<p>"Yeah or, you look like me, but dumber." She grouched back, making Luz flinch back a bit. "Seriously, what was your heroic plan there? Yell at a ferocious monster, stare stupidly at it and then get eaten, thus somehow saving the dumbass in distress?"</p>
<p>Luz would have been happier with a 'thanks', but she didn't let it faze her. She did however remember the creature glaring at her with a face full of pinned-up mangled corpses and shuddered, grabbing her arms in a little self-hug.</p>
<p>"Normally when I rush into things trying to help someone there's a significantly lower number of dead bodies already involved." Luz said sheepishly, rubbing along her arms for comfort and stealing another glance at the older teen.</p>
<p>They stayed like that for a few moments just catching their breath and observing each other. Or rather, Luz was flicking her gaze all over the place trying to take in all of the surroundings at once while the young woman peered at her suspiciously, looking like she was trying to figure out the excitable girl as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>"This is still the Boiling Isles right? It looks more or less like the forest around Eda's but I was just at Hexside and we were just about to take off for our field trip and I was switching carriages when I -"</p>
<p>"Wait wait wait, you know Eda?" The other girl looked at her incredulously, throwing up her hands like she could physically hold back the torrent of increasingly unnerving sentences erupting from her.</p>
<p>Luz nodded enthusiastically and replied with a, "Yeah, I live with her as her apprentice!"</p>
<p>A wild assortment of emotions seemed to flash on the young woman's face in rapid succession. Finally she seemed to settle on an almost hesitant sort of grimace, like she was preparing for news she didn't want to hear. "Alright kid... What's your name?"</p>
<p>"I'm Luz! Luz Noceda." She thrust her hand out for a friendly shake.</p>
<p>Instead of taking it, the older girl heaved herself to her feet and pulled Luz up with a yelp by the offered hand.</p>
<p>"Yeah... I was afraid you were going to say that." She grumbled, dusting herself off.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Okay so let me get this straight... You've never heard of the Boiling Isles but you were also Eda's apprentice and we are clearly the same person, well, physically. Mostly. Kinda." Luz was walking in circles around the older teen who was unenthusiastically made her way through the forest.</p>
<p>"Okay so this seems like a typical alternate dimension sort of situation. Or maybe a future dimension situation? Possibly even an <em>alternate future dimension situation."</em>  She continued to muse. Then Luz popped right into the other Luz's face and wondered aloud, "Do I end up growing my hair out like this too? I can't say it's a bad look. Hey if we both have the same name what do we call each other?"</p>
<p>Luz's overly familiar intrusion seemed to throw the older teen off her step and she rose a hand abruptly to stem the tide of questions.</p>
<p>"The closest thing I have to a friend calls me by my- our?- last name, so you can too I guess." She said neutrally. Even their eyes were the same colour!</p>
<p>"Okay, so then you're Noceda and I'm Luz!" She giggled. "It'll take a while to get used to but that keeps things straight."</p>
<p>Noceda had prompted Luz to follow her out of the area with the warning that the monster they had gotten away from was tenacious. It wasn't going to give up its prey just because Noceda got a good shot in.</p>
<p>"You said we were meeting up with your 'travel partner'? Is that the friend who calls you Noceda? Can I ask who they are? Is it Eda? Maybe I know their alternate dimension self!"</p>
<p>Noceda groaned, looking far too tired to be handling such unbound exuberance.</p>
<p>"It's Blight." She bit out, and before Luz could ask her to specify she finished with, "Amity Blight. The violent, annoying one."</p>
<p>That made Luz stop in her tracks for a second before she went back to circling Noceda, this time backwards.</p>
<p>"Wow, that's definitely not like the Amity I know. Hey if I got insta-portalled to the same place you were I wonder if anyone else from the school did too? Maybe my Amity is with your Amity, and wherever Willow is in this world <em>my </em> Willow is too?" She narrowed her eyes in thought and tented her fingers under chin. "Does this world even <em>have</em> a Willow?"</p>
<p>Noceda was walking along with a more sober look on her face now. She reached back to touch the metal bat that was strapped to her bag like it offered her comfort to make sure it was still there.</p>
<p>"Yeah, I know Willow. Last I saw her was in Bonesborough. That was probably a year ago though." She said quietly. Luz fell into step along with her, picking up on her wording and mood. She suddenly felt hesitant to ask, but managed to get out, "When did you last see Eda?"</p>
<p>Noceda didn't answer right away. When she did, she stopped walking and held eye contact, making Luz stop as well and fidget in place because of the seriousness of her expression.</p>
<p>"Kid... Luz. This place is very different from where you came from. It's likely a lot more dangerous and the people you think you know here are going to be in very different situations." She deflated, turning her gaze outwards to the slowly dimming sky. "Give me some time to wrap my head around all this before you go pulling all the backstory out of me, 'kay?"</p>
<p>Luz nodded and stayed silent, although her thoughts were still racing a mile a minute.</p>
<p>
  <em>Looks like alternate me has got a lot going on. I hope nothing bad happened with Eda. Cripes, <strong>my</strong> Eda is going to be worried sick when she finds out I'm not on the Boiling Isles anymore! I already had enough on my plate trying to figure out how to get home before summer vacation is over, now I'm two dimensions removed! How does this sorta thing keep happening to me?</em>
</p>
<p>Noceda seemed to be grateful for the time to think as they made their way along a more well-travelled path. Luz could swear the sky looked hazy, even dusty if that made any sense, despite the evening sun.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>With a few last half-hearted thwacks of her bat (thankfully devoid of glyphs, lest she set the forest on fire), Noceda slipped out of the brush and into the much more open area near a simmering creek. Luz was quick to follow seeing as Noceda had said this should be where her Amity was, and that meant Luz's Amity might be there too!</p>
<p>Luz threw a hand over her eyes to block out the somewhat harsher light of the sun that was starting to set and colouring the sky in all sorts of strange patterns. She could make out a pair of figures standing near a crumbling rock pillar and judging by Noceda's uninterrupted pace, they were indeed the destination. She darted towards the figures (with a small grumble from the other teen that sounded like a weak protest) and picked up speed when one of them seemed to be running towards her as well.</p>
<p>"LUZ!"</p>
<p>Exhilaration flooded from her chest to every inch of her body as Amity came into clear view and without hesitation she grabbed up her friend into a fierce hug that left the green-haired witch both somewhat stunned and beet red.</p>
<p>""¡Dios Mío! Amity! I'm so relieved you're okay!"</p>
<p>"Umm, uh, yeah I'm doing great!" Amity said quickly and gently pulled Luz away so she could look her over. The concern that flitted across her expression at the scrapes Luz had picked up in the last hour or so didn't go unnoticed, but she didn't say anything about it. Luz caught her eyes for a moment and searched for something, she wasn't sure what exactly but when the other girl managed a shy little smile, she broke into a huge grin and nodded. "I'm really glad, Amity. I don't know what I would have done if you had gotten hurt."</p>
<p>"Oh gag. You two are making me ill just watching you." The other figure that Luz hadn't been paying attention to stepped up beside them with a hand planted firmly on her hip and lip curled in minor disgust. Luz's eyebrows shot up to make friends with her hairline when she took in the other young woman's fierce appearance combined with the uncanny resemblance to her friend.</p>
<p>Her wild mane was the same mint-green colour as Amity's and just barely forced into some semblance of control with a single tie high at the back of her head behind her pointed ears. She even had the same gold eyes as Amity. Her stylish jacket and pants looked fairly new but still held tell-tale signs of outdoor living. Her posture screamed confidence and her expression read as, 'Warning: Unapproachable'.</p>
<p>Luz felt her cheeks heat up, a bit intimidated by the older green-haired witch and her eyes darted quickly between both her and Amity a few times while she processed. Amity's gaze was aimed over her shoulder to what Luz assumed was her older counterpart, eyes wide and calculating but otherwise unfazed.</p>
<p>"So you're late. What the hell happened?" The older witch directed at Noceda.</p>
<p>"Amicable as always, Blight." Noceda replied drily. "Ran in to a murderous pin-cushion and had to save ding-dong here. I see you have one of your own." She gestured to Amity.</p>
<p>"Hey! I saved you first.. Sorta. Well I helped!" Luz interjected, crossing her arms indignantly. The nerve.</p>
<p>"You distracted it a bit." The older human said nonchalantly.</p>
<p>Blight sent a leer Noceda's way. "Does that mean she gets a point?" Noceda narrowed her eyes in response but didn't say anything else.</p>
<p>Amity moved in close so she could quietly ask, "Luz, do you have any idea what's going on? We're definitely not on the Boiling Isles anymore."</p>
<p>"Yeah, I think we ended up in an alternate dimension or something crazy like that. Hey did you fall through a portal too?" Luz grabbed on to Amity's elbow in her eagerness. The witch's expression lit up as if to say, '<em>That makes sense!' </em></p>
<p>"Yeah, I did. Actually, I think I saw you go through yours!"</p>
<p>"Huh?"</p>
<p>"When you were sneaking over to that other carriage, I saw you just kinda," she mimicked falling through the floor, "and you disappeared just like that."</p>
<p>"Hmm... so something pulled us both here. I was wondering earlier about any other people we know who might have come here too..." Luz started thoughtfully, then her eyes lit up in excitement.  "Hey, maybe everyone has a counterpart here! We could run in to all sorts of wacky alternate versions of our friends and-"</p>
<p>"Luz, how are we supposed to get back? We might be stuck here!"</p>
<p>"Oh... right right. We'll work on that." She said as she straightened up a bit. "You know, I do have some experience hopping from realm to realm." Amity didn't look convinced.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>        While the two chatted, the older pair had moved away several paces so they could catch each other up.</p>
<p>"So, what happened with yours?" Noceda tilted her chin to the young duplicate of her companion.</p>
<p>Blight shrugged. "She suddenly appeared next to me and I almost took her head off." The claw-tipped fingers on her right hand flinched with the muscle-memory of being brandished at a girl who had fallen out of thin air and landed too close for comfort. She leaned in and spoke in a more serious tone. "They seem to be the real deal; midget-Me's magic isn't corrupt at all."</p>
<p>Noceda nodded, a somewhat distracted look on her face. "Alright..." She had more or less come to a decision. "It'll be getting dark soon. We should set up camp and bring them up to speed."</p>
<p>Blight seemed surprised at her easy willingness to let the pair join them but didn't object outright. She pointed to an area uphill of them across the thin veil of steam from the lazy creek.</p>
<p>"There's a good spot up there." She said simply. Noceda followed her finger and then peered in the direction that she and the kid had come from, scanning for sight or sound of the monster from before. It would be a good idea to stick to higher ground, and crossing the creek was an extra precaution. She turned towards the pair of younger teens.</p>
<p>"Hey you two. If you don't want to be eaten by the first thing that sees you I'd recommend staying with us tonight."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>With a quick exchange between them, Luz and Amity had agreed it was far safer to spend the night with the older teens than attempt to take this world on with barely any understanding of it. At Noceda's indication, they followed along not far behind.</p>
<p>"Do you think anyone's noticed we're gone yet?" Amity asked quietly. Luz batted the question around in her head a bit, wanting to answer honestly but not make her friend worry.</p>
<p>"At worst, they'd probably notice once they touched down and took attendance." Luz hoped that word would get back to Eda quickly, if anyone could help figure out what was going on with random portal shenanigans, it would be her. She said as much out loud.</p>
<p>"I didn't see anything that looked like a portal while I was with.. uh, Blight. She was waiting for Noceda where I fell and it was at least an hour or two before you both showed up." Amity explained. It hadn't occurred to Luz to note where or even look around the area that she had emerged into this world at, but if there was going to be a way back to the Boiling Isles from the same place there was no way they could just wait around and see if the portals would randomly open back up again. Almost getting mauled right after arriving made that pretty clear.</p>
<p>"Maybe this world's Eda can help us; Noceda knows her. We can ask those two if they could help get us to the Owl House!" Luz said while gesturing animatedly at the pair ahead of them. Said pair seemed to be arguing over something to do with 'points'. Amity had a sceptical look on her face, and it quickly turned anxious. Well that wouldn't do!</p>
<p>Luz grabbed Amity's hand in her own and swung both their arms energetically. She offered her most uplifting smile to the surprised witch.</p>
<p>"Try not to worry too much, okay Amity? We're here now, but we're going to figure this out. First step is to take a step, and that step is to find Eda!"</p>
<p>Amity nodded, giving her hand a little squeeze in thanks. She didn't look entirely happy but she seemed a bit more reassured.</p>
<p>"And hey, as long as we're heading to Eda's we should check around Bonesborough and see if anyone else from our world is here too. Just in case."</p>
<p>They didn't say much more as the incline of their trek was getting steeper, and by the time they had arrived at the place the two older teens were aiming for it was nearly dusk. The to-be campsite was a small clearing with a thick set of trees and brush around it. A few large boulders were half-buried in the ground. Noceda seemed to be inspecting the perimeter when a pinkish flash caught Luz's attention. It looked like Blight had set an old tree stump on fire, although the magenta flames seemed to radiate a shimmering effect for a moment until Luz's eyes got used to it.</p>
<p>Amity moved ahead and curiously regarded the fire. Luz smiled, sitting down on one of the boulders and thinking how adorable Amity appeared while observing it with such awe. There was clearly more to the merry pyre than it seemed.</p>
<p>A thought suddenly occurred to Luz. "Hey, you guys must have cool new spells and glyphs me and Amity haven't learned yet. And maybe we have some skills that you guys might find useful!" Her chest swelled with passion and she clapped her hands once in her giddiness. "We may come from different worlds, but we're the same! Literally! And who better to teach us than ourselves?"</p>
<p>Blight let out a loud raspberry to show just how much <em>that</em> idea resonated with her.</p>
<p>"We are not the same." Noceda said pointedly. "You've got enough optimism to fill every glass on the Isle and I've got a roadmap of scars where a purpose probably should have been."</p>
<p>Something seemed to strike Blight as particularly funny about that statement, and she donned a mischievous grin as she abruptly made her way over to Luz. She disappeared behind her and before Luz could crane her neck around to follow she felt a hand clamp on to her left shoulder. A second later she felt Blight's fingers pull her hoodie away from her neck and she jolted upright with a startled, "Hello!" as the witch seemed to be looking for something on her upper back.</p>
<p>"Hey, what are you doing?" Amity rushed over, and Blight let go of Luz to sneer in Noceda's direction. Luz shivered at the goosebumps those claws had elicited on her skin.</p>
<p>Noceda was shooting Blight a questioning look, seemingly just as confused as the rest of them.</p>
<p>"<em>She</em> doesn't have a birthmark." Blight's tone dripped with honeyed victory. It seemed to take Noceda a moment to catch up with whatever the exchange was supposed to be about but then her face went beet red. Jumping up, she practically yelled, "That doesn't prove anything! She's from a fucking <em>alternate dimension!" </em> </p>
<p>"Sure, sure, whatever you say~" Blight sing-songed and reclaimed her seat on the other side of the fire. Luz found herself blinking rapidly and wondering if any of that was supposed to make sense to her.</p>
<p>Amity seemed to decide that somewhere between Luz and Blight was the best place to sit. Her ramrod posture kind of reminded Luz of a dog protecting its owner from a wild animal. The thought struck her as pretty funny and she hid her mouth behind a hand; She didn't want to have to explain <em>that</em> one.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>        It took a little while longer for the four of them to settle down. At some point Blight had revealed a witch's bag nearly identical to Amity's although a good deal more worn. From it she had produced a pair of full-sized bed rolls and judging by the way she tossed one at Noceda, this was a typical part of their arrangement. From the way Noceda responded by telling her not to "throw her shit over the fire", their arguing was also a typical part of their arrangement.</p>
<p>"I'm surprised the two of you can even travel together given how prone you both are to fighting." Amity muttered. She wasn't as quiet as Luz would have deemed entirely diplomatic and indeed Noceda responded as if it had been a question.</p>
<p>"Blight's got my stuff in her bag. Beats carrying it."</p>
<p>"Yeah, well, I keep you around as a distraction." Blight snarked back.</p>
<p>Noceda shot the witch an affronted look. "What?"</p>
<p>"If something too strong to handle attacks us I can get away while it's eating you."</p>
<p>"Oh. Whatever."</p>
<p>Luz rose both eyebrows as Noceda relaxed and took a seat across from her. If that answer had been reassuring what kind of distraction had Noceda been indignant about?</p>
<p>"Anyways, if the peanut gallery can shut it for a few minutes, we have a lot to unpack here." Noceda looked over to Luz with a more serious expression. "This island is a tough place to get by on and you two need to know the basics before you make any plans."</p>
<p>Luz practically bounced off of her boulder and sidled up closer to the fire. "Hit us with it! Brand new world happening here so let's get some context!"</p>
<p>Amity rooted through her witches bag while trying to pay attention to the pair of humans, finally fishing out a wrapped sandwich. She noticed Blight watching her out of the corner of her eye and offered her half of the sandwich as a sort of peace offering. With a lazy wave of her hand, the other witch summoned some type of packaged snack from thin air and proceeded to open it, ignoring her. Amity suppressed a huff and turned back to the conversation with a small frown.</p>
<p>"Firstly, judging from your clean clothes and annoyingly jubilant pep, I'm guessing you two are from a Turm Isle that hasn't got corrupt magic. Is your guys' Mount Aorta still dormant or did it erupt yet?" Noceda asked, mostly directing her question to Luz while Amity worked through her meal.</p>
<p>"Uhh, wow nothing you said made sense to me. Did you say this place is called Term-ile?" Luz whipped her gaze over to Amity. "Hey is there a volcano on the Boiling Isles? I don't remember anyone saying something about that before."</p>
<p>The young witch hastily swallowed her mouthful of sandwich and cleared her throat before answering. "There are some places on the island that have volcanic activity, but nothing drastic. And I've never heard of an actual eruption happening before."</p>
<p>Noceda hunched forward with a thoughtful look on her face. "That right there is a pretty big difference. This island has had its huge volcano for longer than anyone remembers. We should keep that in mind, it could be an important clue." She directed the last part to Blight on the other side of the flickering fire.</p>
<p>"Why do you think it's important?" Luz perked up.</p>
<p>"Because when it erupted a couple years ago that's when the magic of the island started poisoning us." Blight answered instead of Noceda, her voice hard.</p>
<p>"Poisoning you?" Amity asks slowly, fingers tensing on the remains of her sandwich. Blight motioned to Noceda to continue explaining before she drew up just a bit more tensely than before like the topic was distasteful.</p>
<p>"Yeah. So, you both know that magic comes from the titan that makes up the island, err," She glanced over to Luz as if to confirm that part was even applicable here to which the younger girl seemed to pick up on right away and nodded quickly. "-and that everything on the island evolved to use magic and constantly interacts with that magic, right." This time both of the younger teens nodded to show they were following and Noceda continued. "Well, after the eruption something started happening to the magic here, like it was corrupting over time. I think it goes really deep. And over the last couple years, everything and every creature on the island has been absorbing that corruption and it's had all sorts of nasty effects." Noceda gestured vaguely in Blight's direction. "Especially if you're an active magic user- you know, have a lot of it flowing through you."</p>
<p>Luz and Amity exchanged worried glances, and Amity had started fidgeting without really noticing.</p>
<p>Luz shuffled a few inches closer to the young witch, sensing her unease. "So that means that... everyone on the island is in danger?" She asked hesitantly.</p>
<p>Blight scoffed loudly. "Everyone on the island <strong>is </strong>the danger. We could be the only two left here that still have all our wits."</p>
<p>Noceda looked like she wanted to crack a joke but seemed to think better of it. She sighed dejectedly when Luz turned to her with a look that begged for clarification.</p>
<p>"It's... well it's bad. Most of the demons are basically monsters now, from the school bell demons to the old grannies. And witches.." She glanced at the older witch across from her who wouldn't meet her gaze. "Well, let's just say it's affecting them too."</p>
<p>A loud pop from the fire startled the assorted teens and something drew Luz's gaze outside of the pinkish haze of their camp circle. She sat up straight immediately upon noticing a long four-legged form slowly winding through the trees.</p>
<p>"Umm guys?" Luz's eyes followed the slinking thing and Amity turned to follow her gaze, searching for whatever was spooking her. Upon seeing it as well, she jumped to her feet with a startled, "eep!"</p>
<p>The older pair didn't seem to worry about the potential danger, as Blight's eyes simply followed it and Noceda held a hand out to rein the younger teens in.</p>
<p>"Just stay calm alright? This fire is illusory, it hides us from most things out here. Just don't step out of the light right now or anything can see you."</p>
<p>Luz had gotten up as well and was standing elbow-to-elbow with Amity, both of them nervously watching as the figure melted into the shadows again. Her eyes picked up more movement and she whispered, "There's another one."</p>
<p>Amity's eyes widened even further and she managed to squeak out a "Where?" before Luz pointed and they were both trained on a second shadowy figure slowly navigating the tree trunks that were barely visible outside the glow from the fire.</p>
<p>Noceda had leaned over to the side to look around the two frightened girls at the retreating figures. The camp was dead silent for a few moments while Luz's eyes darted around, seeing movement everywhere because of the dancing pink flames casting shadows against the trees and rocks.</p>
<p>"RRAAAAAHHH!" Blight suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs.</p>
<p>Amity practically dove into Luz as they both shrieked, turning towards the older witch with terrified and angry expressions respectively. Her wild green mane shook while she cackled and wiped a tear from her eye.</p>
<p>"Asshole." Noceda muttered, slowly lowering her hand from over her heart before Blight could notice and make fun of her for it. Luz's reaction wasn't quite so subtle.</p>
<p>"Are you TRYING to give us a heart attack??" She stomped over to the older witch and glared down at her. "What the heck was that about?"</p>
<p>"You two just looked so timid, I couldn't resist." She said around her chuckling. "Listen, my spell is strong enough to counter the senses of anything in this area. So let's have a bit more faith, alright?"</p>
<p>Amity joined Luz in chastising the older witch. "Hey, well if you'd stop acting like a stuck-up jerk all the time maybe we would!" Her fists were clenched hard at her sides and even Luz was a bit surprised at the venom in her tone.</p>
<p>Blight's eyes narrowed at the tone and she slowly rose to her boot-clad feet to stare down the two younger teens. Luz felt a tingle of dread race up her spine as the young woman seemed to loom over them, amusement gone from her expression. She seemed to be locked in a staring contest with Amity, who to her credit, was holding up admirably despite practically vibrating.</p>
<p>"Okay, okay, you guys let's just drop it. Blight and I are going to be heading out in the morning." Noceda jumped in hastily, trying to diffuse the tension between the two witches. "We're travelling to the Owl House, and assuming we're not held up we should get there in a few days."</p>
<p>Luz let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding when Blight broke eye contact first and stiffly turned around to put some distance between herself and the others. Noceda's declaration caught up with her and she couldn't believe their luck!</p>
<p>"You're going to Eda's? That's perfect! I've been thinking that if anyone can help us find a way back to our own dimension, it would be her! You've gotta let us come with you! Please?" Luz clasped her hands like in prayer and unleashed a full power Puppy-Eyes. Amity took that moment to cut in.</p>
<p>"Hold up a moment, Luz. That's convenient and all but why would you two be going to the Owl House in the first place? If we really are days away from the Bonesborough area you must not live there, right?" She directed evenly at Noceda, crossing her arms and making Luz wish she didn't look so openly suspicious. The older teen ran a hand along her short hair like the answer was difficult to put into words.</p>
<p>"Noceda is going to solve the mysteries of our fucked-up magic and save <em>the whole island</em> with the owl witch's diary." Blight said with thinly-veiled derision. Noceda shot her a look and snapped, "Shut up."</p>
<p>Luz reclaimed her seat from before and focused on the other human with a questioning look. "Eda's diary?"</p>
<p>"Her <em>research notes.</em>" Noceda corrected, narrowing her eyes at Blight before turning back to Luz. She looked almost, apprehensive? Luz's eyebrows furrowed and she waited impatiently for Noceda to continue.</p>
<p>"Eda and Lilith were studying the changes in the island's magic not long after Mount Aorta blew. It didn't take very long for people to realize something was wrong."Noceda said, steepling her fingers and staring towards the fire as she explained. "But it did take a while for the effects to show up."</p>
<p>Luz noticed Amity curling her arms around her middle and wanted to go comfort her but didn't want to risk missing any part of the explanation. She forced herself to pay attention and tried to block out the anxious pacing Blight had drifted into.</p>
<p>"The two of them barely slept; Eda was constantly running experiments and Lilith getting all sorts of supplies and stuff. The woods between us and Bonesborough was getting so dangerous that Eda wouldn't even let me leave the House anymore. When things started getting really bad-" Noceda stopped and seemed to recall where she was. She shook her head as if to clear out the emotion and looked straight at Luz with a flat gaze.</p>
<p>"Anyways, an experiment went bad. Eda's been missing since. I left because I couldn't handle being there anymore but now I'm heading back to see what I can do. The island isn't getting better and this place is all I have."</p>
<p>She seemed drained. As if the story was both hard to tell and yet a relief to say out loud. Luz held her gaze. This was some pretty heavy stuff, and in her heart she knew that while getting herself and Amity home was important, if there was anything she could do to help here, she wanted to try.</p>
<p>"Alright." Luz nodded, first at herself and then again with conviction in her eyes. "Let us come with you, and maybe there's a way we can all help each other, alright? Maybe we can find some clues to tell us if Eda is okay and where she might have gone. Maybe she already came back and you didn't even know." Luz offered, brightening with the thought. She felt better and better about this plan, even Noceda looked like she hadn't fully considered that possibility.</p>
<p>Luz turned to Amity. "You have to be okay with this too though." She searched the other girl's eyes but she really hoped Amity would go along with the idea. Amity shuffled a bit when she answered.</p>
<p>"If they're fine with us coming along I'm okay with it." Her eyes flicked momentarily in Blight's vague direction. "There may be people in Bonesborough we can ask too." Luz had joked about it before, but there was also the possibility that Willow and other people they know might be lost in this world. They certainly couldn't try to get home without at least investigating.</p>
<p>Luz turned towards Noceda with tired triumph on her face, but before she could seal her request she doubled over in full-body yawn. It seemed to catch on, and Luz found herself chuckling fondly when all four of them gave in to the urges. <em>We're a lot more alike than you think,</em> Luz thought to herself with a smile.</p>
<p>"Alright, alright. If not on the same page, at least we're in the same book. Let's get some shut-eye and pick this up in the morning. Sound fair?" Noceda conceded, cracking the joints in her arms and turning towards Blight to gauge any outright refusal.</p>
<p>Luz nodded and hopped up, over-balancing a bit with sleepiness. It seemed like now that they had a plan of sorts in the works, the events of the day were catching up to her. She let out another jaw-popping yawn and waved Amity over while she shuffled towards her backpack and the increasingly desirable sleeping bag tethered to it.</p>
<p>"Heey Amity," Luz eyes were half-lidded while she started unpacking what she would use for the night.</p>
<p>"Hmm?"</p>
<p>"This is our first time camping together." Luz grinned.</p>
<p>The mix of worry and exhaustion on Amity's face melted away into a tired, but fond smile and Luz felt ever more assured that everything would turn out okay.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Noceda eyed the two younger teens, out cold in their respective sleeping bags and looking so small and vulnerable with the big dark forest stretching out behind them.</p>
<p>"We're gonna have to pick up the pace Blight. The kid-, uh, little Luz isn't gonna last too long without Eda's filtering spell. It should still be at the Owl House somewhere." The other teen didn't look at her but did stretch out languidly along the mostly-flat boulder she had claimed, tiredly resting her head against her hand.</p>
<p>"You seem to be really eager to help them out Luz. Why?"</p>
<p>The brunette was quiet for a few moments while she pondered the question. Why <em>was</em> she so willing to help them out indeed? She breathed out slowly through her nose and deflated against the rock Blight was lying on, not quite touching but close enough to feel the heat radiating from her.</p>
<p>"I dunno. Maybe I just want to feel like a human being again. Just do something good for a change."</p>
<p>The witch smirked, though it was half-hearted and her tone had no bite when she responded with, "You mean you want to feel like a hero again."</p>
<p>Noceda tsked but didn't respond right away. She stared into the middle distance for a while before leaning her head back and relaxing against the rock entirely. A wisp of mint green hair dangled just barely inside her field of view.</p>
<p>"There may still be a way to fix this, Blight. Don't you feel even a bit hopeful that maybe those two are here for a reason?"</p>
<p>She shrugged. "I traded all my hope long ago just to stay alive." She shifted somewhat so that her face was closer to Noceda's ear and her arm stuck out awkwardly somewhere to the human's right. "If you really think it's worth it to drag those two into your stupid quest or whatever you seem to think this is then I won't fight you on it. But if something happens to them and.. and you break," she paused, as if feeling like she was revealing a bit too much but pressed on regardless. "I won't forgive you."</p>
<p>Noceda didn't say anything for a long time, only raising her hand to gently toy with one of Blight's outstretched claws while they both wandered deep into thought.</p>
<p>"I have enough for both of us." She said finally. Blight cracked open a tired eye and made a small questioning grunt deep in her throat.</p>
<p>"Hope. I have enough for both of us. And I won't give up on this just yet. Not the island. Not your dumb ass." The witch snorted quietly at that. "Not our friends or the rest of them."</p>
<p>She unsuccessfully suppressed a yawn and almost missed the quiet murmur of, "you're an idiot Luz" before the green-haired teen finally drifted off despite her uncomfortable-looking choice of sleeping arrangement.</p>
<p><em>I agree, </em>Noceda thought before she too nodded off to the crackling and flickering of their protective campfire.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey people! Thanks for checking out my stowwy. I've loved The Owl House since I found out about it a few weeks ago and this is the first thing I've managed to get out of the planning stage since I was a teenager. Please forgive my bumblings as I feel out AO3 from the other side~! Chapter 2 is already written and I'll be doing final checks before uploading tomorrow or asap. Hope to see you there!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Dawn 'till Dusk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"... Is that even safe to eat?" Amity raised an eyebrow at the questionable-looking forest critter roasting over the flames. She had roused from her sleep not far from a peacefully snoring Luz and had watched her dreamily for a few moments before startling awake and remembering what she was doing there. Over by the fire, much smaller than it was last night, Noceda seemed to be making food and Blight was nowhere to be found.</p>
<p>"The alternative is that we use up our supplies that we might need when food is scarce." Noceda said without taking her eyes off the slowly twirling would-be breakfast. "Exactly how many meals do you have on you right now?" She glanced over at Amity.</p>
<p>Thinning her lips while she thought, Amity realized quickly that Noceda made a good point. She had a few lunches and preferred breakfast foods with her, and a generous amount of snacks that she managed to slip into her witch's bag, but the school field trip hadn't been focused on making the students fend for themselves in the wild. Her parents had even bullied Principal Bump into constructing a far more decadent version of the meal plan for her and the other witches of her 'social grade'.</p>
<p>A high-pitched whine from behind Amity signalled Luz's return to the waking world as she stretched so far in her sleeping bag that her knuckles rubbed against the tree trunk behind her and one foot-shaped distortion stuck out from the other end. Amity wondered how much abuse the stitching could take if that was a typical waking habit of hers.</p>
<p>"Hmm.. M'rning Amity." Luz murmured, rubbing her eyes tiredly when she caught sight of her. Amity managed a little wave and a, "morning Luz", before she had to turn away or risk heat exhaustion from the sudden burning on her cheeks of the adorable little human wiggling sleepily out of her warm cocoon. Unfortunately this left her face on full display for Noceda who lifted an eyebrow at her with a tiny knowing smirk on her lips.</p>
<p>"SO, um," She schooled her voice into something more casual. "Where is um.. older Amity? Blight?" Noceda went back to tending breakfast. "She's hunting. That's where these came from." She said with a wave over to a few more of the small roasted animals on sticks.</p>
<p>"Ooh, camp-style brekkie, can I get one of those?" Luz chirped as she bounded over to the collection of cooling skewers, Amity following at a more sedate pace. Noceda waved in a 'go ahead' gesture and Luz spared no time grabbing a critter and chowing down.</p>
<p>"Amity you've gotta try this, it's really good!" Luz said around mouthfuls. Amity took a skewer and analyzed it before hesitantly taking a small bite. It wasn't bad, although she wasn't used to her food being so... recently alive and still in possession of its crispy little paws.</p>
<p>Luz ate with the exuberance and familiarity that came from having been exposed to Eda's assorted culinary spectacles, oblivious of the approving look Noceda sent her way. She seemed to be pleased, or at least amused, with Luz's enthusiasm at her field cooking.</p>
<p>They ate and chatted (well, Luz chattered around her second skewer) for a short while until Blight came into view. She had several more critters as well as some berry-laden branches and a pair of purple eggs gathered in a basket that was hovering on its own by her hip. A bloodied rag was tied around the handle and Amity could see streaks of dried blood on her claws, fingers and wrists. Her clothes were surprisingly clean despite running around slaying things in a forest all morning.</p>
<p>Amity swallowed hard around her last bite and placed her stick on the ground. "Thank you both for breakfast." She said, feeling a bit awkward. Luz nodded a few times next to her while swallowing the last of her third skewer and echoed her gratitude.</p>
<p>"So now what? Are you guys gonna give us the run-down of how to survive the perilous horrors of the wild?" Luz was as bubbly as ever considered their situation. She glanced back and forth between the two older teens. "Maybe a hunting lesson or how not-to-be-hunted lesson?"</p>
<p>Blight scowled a bit and muttered something like, 'far too happy this early in the morning', while Noceda gathered the new raw foods and went to work with them.</p>
<p>"Firstly, you two won't be leaving the fireside when we're camping. If we're going to get you both to Eda's in one piece you're gonna have to do what we say." Noceda drawled looking pointedly at Amity and then Luz. "Blight and me have been travelling together for months, and we've been surviving all the crazy shit this place throws at us since everything went ten extra flavours of kooky. You two haven't got a clue what is out there or how not to get mauled by every damn thing that wants to kill you, eat you, or worse."</p>
<p>Luz appeared to be paying full attention with her chin grasped attentively between her index finger and thumb, although Amity bristled a bit at the condescending speech. It wasn't like growing up on the Boiling Isles with all of its demons and monsters and ill-conceived magical shenanigans that witches would get up to was the safest place after all. But she held her tongue while the older human settled into laying down some groundwork for the time being that they would be travelling together.</p>
<p>"You two need to be aware that nearly everything around you is a potential hazard. I'm not just talking about the monsters and animals. A lot of the plantlife on the island has been mutating constantly." Noceda pointed out. Amity twisted her head around to peer at the forest surroundings around them and didn't see much in the way of dangerous flora. She supposed that was why they were camped there overnight in the first place. "Even the water and air are things we have to be careful about. No drinking water that we haven't conjured with a glyph or put through a magic filter yet, alright?"</p>
<p>"The air is bad for us too? What's wrong with it exactly?" Luz piped up, her hand in the air like a little kid. Noceda cracked her back and subconsciously took a deeper breath than usual.</p>
<p>"The volcano on this island has been spewing its innards out for something like two years now. You might have noticed how hazy everything is?" Noceda said, gesturing around her. It was true, as both Amity and Luz looked around they had noticed that the light filtering through the canopy above them had been muted at best even though it was early in the morning. Amity had been too overwhelmed to really think about it at first but the air did have a different scent to it than she was used to from home.</p>
<p>"There's poisonous fumes in the air, and although it doesn't seem to bother witches much it is a problem for human lungs." Noceda continued, moving the cooked food away from the fire and standing up to stretch. Blight took that as her cue to snatch up the rest and after wrapping them up in some cloth, placed them in her witch's bag without a word.</p>
<p>"UH WHAT?" Luz gaped at Noceda. "The air is POISONOUS and you're only just now telling us this?!" Amity turned sharply to the older human, "How is it that you've been okay then?" She demanded.</p>
<p>Noceda was packing up the rest of the few things they had around the camp while she answered, seemingly unconcerned by the topic.</p>
<p> "Eda figured it out pretty early. She managed to come up with a filtering spell and set it on me a week or two after Aorta erupted. If she hadn't, I'd have suffocated a long time ago." She clapped her hands free of dust and hoisted her backpack over a shoulder. "That's why we need to hurry up and get to Eda's so we can figure out how to re-create the spell and set it on you before your lungs start turning into leather." She pointed at Luz who looked like she wanted to pursue the topic, but Blight took that moment to interject instead.</p>
<p>"Also, Midget-me, you're not getting off lightly around here either just because we can tolerate killer volcano farts." The older witch took up a pace roughly alongside Noceda as they started making their way along the easiest path through the gnarled trees. Luz ran ahead and Amity followed, growling under her breath at the nickname but not given a chance to respond. "Since the magic of the titan is fucked, everything that uses magic gets fucked. It's a slow process at first but the more magic you use the more it'll affect you."</p>
<p>The sinking feeling she had from earlier was back with a vengeance. The very idea of her magic being poisonous made her stomach clench up.</p>
<p>"But you've been using magic, and I saw Noceda using glyphs yesterday when we were fighting off that scary spike monster!" Luz piped up, weaving in between the two older teens and the trees around them. Amity pinned her gaze on the back of Blight's head and was very interested in how she would respond. Last night the topic of the corrupted magic seemed to put her ill at ease and they had left it there.</p>
<p>"What exactly does using magic do to us?" She asked quietly, knowing the others would still hear her what with the relative quiet of the forest around them.</p>
<p>Neither Noceda or Blight said anything right away. It did little to ease the anxiety that Amity could feel crawling around in her gut. She felt like some invisible force was already sliding around inside her, doing some awful thing that she couldn't see.</p>
<p>"It warps us." Blight turned her head a bit to peer back at Amity through her mint-green mane. Then she focused ahead again and walked more stiffly than before while she continued. "When you use magic, it'll change a little bit of you, body and mind, into something else. We don't know why it happens. And it's different for each witch. But if you aren't careful then it can get out of control before you know it."</p>
<p>Amity hadn't realized how fast her breathing had become or how much her hands were shaking until she felt a warm hand slide into hers and grip comfortingly. She jerked her head up to meet Luz's eyes and reassuring smile. "It's alright Amity." Luz said quietly, pulling her close while they walked. She gave her hand a little squeeze. "We're going to be careful. And they're still here, so whatever they're doing to stay safe we will do too, okay?"</p>
<p><em>I'm so glad you're here with me Luz. </em>Amity couldn't say the words out loud but she gratefully accepted her friend's urge to comfort her. She offered a small smile of thanks which Luz returned cheerfully with eyes that seemed to promise, "<em>I'll protect you Amity!"</em> Although that could have been her imagination exaggerating a bit. She hoped it wasn't.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Noceda was holding a map presumably of the island or at least the section they were in and seemed to be trying to match exactly where they were on it. If her frustrated grumbles were anything to go by, she was having some difficulties.</p>
<p>"Give me that." Blight snatched the already hassled scroll from her and held her face away as the human cursed her out and tried to claw it back.</p>
<p>Ignoring the squabbling up ahead, Amity gratefully dropped to sit on a boulder and wipe her forehead off on her sleeve. Luz noticed her sudden stop and doubled back to check, although she was panting from their long hike as well.</p>
<p>They had been walking for <em>hours.</em> The sun was a bright clearly-defined circle over their heads, obscured somewhat by the haze of ash that they could make out now that they weren't penned in by branches. The forest of mismatched trees and alternating patches of scraggly grass had opened up into a wide plains with a rocky ridge extending higher and higher on their far left. Unfortunately that meant that in addition to the already heavy warm air, they were also trudging along with little to no shade.</p>
<p>"Hey Amity, how're you holding up?" Luz asked, crouching in front of her. Amity lamented that she couldn't find the energy to appreciate the way Luz's skin glistened or her lips parted slightly when she exhaled.</p>
<p>"I'm.... well. I could be better. I'm not sure when the last time was that I hiked this long in one shot." She panted out with an exasperated little quirk of her lips.</p>
<p>"Maybe you should take a drink." Luz suggested gently. "You still have water left?"</p>
<p>Amity nodded, the thought of water suddenly rushing to the forefront of her thoughts and she hastily opened her witch's bag and rooted around until she found one of her flasks. She drank from it greedily while Luz stood and shielded her eyes to try and spot the two older teens up ahead.</p>
<p>One of the two was swiftly scaling the rocky ridge and the other seemed to be heading back towards them. After putting away her flask, Amity regarded the approaching teen (who was now identifiable as Noceda) with a bit of dread.</p>
<p>"You two gotta say something if you're gonna stop." Noceda looked tired and frustrated but not like she was ready to take a break any time soon. "Also don't stop. We're out in the open and we have to keep moving. We gotta be out of this place before sundown."</p>
<p>"Where is she going?" Luz asked, pointing up in the direction Blight was heading, half-way up the ridge by now. Noceda snorted derisively and bit out, "She's checking to make sure we're on course. It's easier to see landmarks up there."</p>
<p>"Can we take a break until she checks back with us?" Luz asked with a stiffness of her shoulders that likely meant she was already quite intent to do just that.</p>
<p>Noceda huffed out like she already knew that was going to cause trouble but seemed aware that Luz had already made up her mind.</p>
<p>"I can make us an ice pillar for shade; let's just take a break and have some lunch and we'll be good to go in a little bit, okay?" Luz said diplomatically, seeming to gain back a bit of her usual pep with the idea of imminent food. Amity's eyes widened and she whipped her head up towards Luz. "Luz you can't! Using magic will poison you, remember?" she yelped.</p>
<p>Luz shrugged. "It's only a little bit of poison, right? That's why you two are still okay even with two years of using some magic, right?" She regarded Noceda, who was checking back on Blight. Somewhat distracted, the older girl replied with, "It doesn't do that to us, glyphs aren't the same as natural magic users."</p>
<p>Amity's jaw dropped but Luz was waving her arms in exasperation. "Why didn't you tell us this before! We could have been using magic this whole time?"</p>
<p>Noceda ignored her in favour of pin-pointing Blight among the craggy top of the ridge and by the time she looked back Luz was finishing a rather large ice glyph that she had carved into a dirt patch with a bit of bone. She raised a hand to stop her, "Kid, hold on", but Luz was already slapping a hand down and activated the pillar that shot up seven or eight feet in the air and fanned out along the top like a mushroom, glistening like it was made of diamond.</p>
<p>With an excited squeal, Luz flattened as much of her body against the cool ice as she could manage. Amity sheepishly glanced over at Noceda who was groaning and running a hand down her face, clearly not impressed.</p>
<p>"Could you explain why she can't use her glyph magic if it really doesn't affect you humans the way it does for witches?" Amity asked, cautiously moving into the relative shade of the pillar and considering joining Luz in bear-hugging it.</p>
<p>The older teen grumbled but also moved into the shade and craned her face upwards to soak in the waves of cool air wafting down from the ceiling of their impromptu shelter. "Using glyph magic hasn't had any effects on me and so far doesn't seem to affect Blight when she's tried them." She turned sharply towards Luz who had created a Luz-shaped indent about an inch deep in the side of the pillar she was latched on to. "But that doesn't mean it won't attract attention when we over-do it."</p>
<p>"No regreeeeets..." Luz moaned from her slowly deepening ice-angel. Amity sat down on the ground regardless of the dusty terrain and scratchy grasses. "But for now, it's already done so we can take a moment right?" She said with some finality in her voice. Noceda screwed up her nose in irritation at her. "Yep, you're definitely related to Blight."</p>
<p>While Amity took the time to power back some snacks and Luz continued her slow entombment in ice, Noceda paced around restlessly, not staying particularly long in the shade nor out of it. Eventually they could see Blight making her way over to them once she had descended the rocky ridge, taking the way down with the added assist of gravity in many places.</p>
<p>"Oh that's nice, so I climb a mountain while you guys kick back in the shade." Blight griped the moment she was within growling range. She didn't stop until she had walked right into the other side of the pillar from Luz with a rather startling thud and stayed there. Steam hissed from her forehead where it contacted the blissfully cool surface.</p>
<p>"Yeah, not my idea. Forget that everything for miles can probably see this thing, we don't know what might have <em>felt </em>it." Noceda said grumpily. Blight groaned at her without moving other than lifting a hand to flip the other teen off. Amity watched as Noceda returned the gesture even though Blight obviously couldn't see it.</p>
<p>Luz's muffled voice sounded from her crater and Amity finally felt a little life flicker back into her tired body.</p>
<p>"So? You went up there to make sure we're going the right way. What's the verdict?"  Noceda asked stiffly. After a moment longer of enjoying the now slippery surface of the ice-shroom base on her forehead, Blight turned around and leaned against it instead.</p>
<p>"We're going in the direction we need to but we can't keep plodding along this ridge." She turned her face east, the way they had been walking all day. "We're going to hit a canyon or something before it gets dark and it's too wide to try glyphing-up a bridge."</p>
<p>Noceda pulled the rumpled map out of her pack. "That's not right, I remember seeing that crack when I came along here the first time." She trailed her finger along the map until she found the scratchings that indicated a fissure cutting across the plains. "It shouldn't be wider than a house."</p>
<p>"Noceda, I'm telling you it won't work. It got wider or something." Blight snapped. Amity shivered a bit at the increased tension in the air and wondered again how these two even functioned as a team.</p>
<p>"H-h-h-eee-y g-g-g-guys? Whhhat'ss the uh, wwhattsts's the probb-blem?" Luz had finally exited her hole in the ice pillar and stumbled up next to Amity, furiously rubbing her arms with her hands to warm up. She was soaked and had snot dribbling from her nose. Amity couldn't help the giggle that escaped her.</p>
<p>Ignoring Luz's antics, Noceda regarded the rest of them with an impatient gesture at the map. "Well if we really can't go along the ridge then we need to go around. Blight, did you see if the canyon gets narrower anywhere?"</p>
<p>"It definitely gets wider going north, so that's out. And I think your map said that was Boothol Town on the other side, but it looks totalled and I didn't see a bridge." Blight waved a hand in the direction leading away from the ridge. "It might get narrower that way but I can't see past the forest. Could be swampland actually, couldn't tell from up there."</p>
<p>Noceda murmured as she looked over the map some more, and in the end they decided to head south-east across the plains to meet the area where the canyon intersected with Moaning Marsh. 'If the trees are thick enough to obscure the width of the canyon then there's probably a way over it' had been Noceda's reasoning, which seemed sound enough.</p>
<p>Unfortunately that meant cutting across open plains for the rest of the day, and by the time they hit a half-way point with a sort of shallow, muddy oasis and some large gnarled trees, they were all quite tired and cranky.</p>
<p>"Uuuuugh, I wish we could just fly there." Luz groaned, nearly bent over double as they trudged along. Her backpack was dragging on the ground behind her only barely managing to stay hooked on her wrist.</p>
<p>The moment Blight hit the shade of one of the trees she collapsed against it with a huff and closed her eyes. Amity decided this was a marvellous idea and picked the next closest tree to sit under. She offered a tired smile to Luz as she trundled over to join her.</p>
<p>Noceda was peering around the muddy, pathetic excuse for an oasis before she seemed settled enough to pick a tree and rest. After a few minutes of rummaging for snacks and drinks in their respective bags (and an apparent power nap in Blight's case), Amity felt enough energy to get Luz's attention.</p>
<p>"So is this an epic enough adventure for you yet Luz?" She asked sarcastically. Luz chuckled around her fizzy drink.</p>
<p>"Well, if I've learned anything about epic adventures, it's that they don't often look like they do in the books and movies." She replied good-humouredly. She rolled her head to the left in thought, then to the right. Then she looked right at Amity with that typical Luz spark in her eyes she loved so much.</p>
<p>"Although... maybe we could do some good here, ya know? It's <em>possible </em> we were brought to this world for some magical destiny reasons!"</p>
<p>Amity 'hmm'-ed noncommittally. "That's a nice thought and all, but I would've liked to have been consulted first."  </p>
<p>Luz chuckled, and after a moment twiddled her fingers apprehensively. Amity waited patiently for Luz to ask whatever she was mulling over.</p>
<p>"Are you worried about your family missing you?" She asked tentatively. Amity leaned her head back against the tree, feeling more tired than before. <em>Luz is so fortunate; she has a lot of people who care for her back home.</em> Amity wasn't upset with her over that, she deserved to have friends and family who loved her. But thinking about her own standing back home made her feel... sad. Empty.</p>
<p>Amity realized that her pause was making Luz anxious, so she responded with a casual shrug. "My parents are probably mad, but I doubt anyone is going to miss me." It didn't make her feel better to say it out loud.</p>
<p>Luz frowned for a moment, then perked up and wiggled into Amity's view. "I'd miss you." She said gently, a comforting smile on her lips. Amity felt a somewhat self-depreciating quirk of her own lips, but never-the-less she was grateful. "Hehe.. thanks."</p>
<p>Luz withdrew a bit, almost looking shy. For some reason it made Amity happy to see it and she drew in a deep breath, feeling like she was taking in a dose of rejuvenating vigour with it. Luz tipped the rest of her drink back and then peered at the empty bottle with a bit more attentiveness than was necessary.</p>
<p>"I guess I should keep this to hold water in, huh?" She scrunched her nose in thought, ('<em>Adorable.' </em>Amity couldn't help thinking it) then she turned her head towards the nearly-dozing Noceda and called out, "Hey Noceda!"</p>
<p>"What."</p>
<p>"Am I crazy or did I hear you say something earlier about a water glyph? Can we actually make safe drinking water?"</p>
<p>"Yeah. You guys out already?"</p>
<p>"No, just wondering." Noceda rolled her eyes and laid her head back against her tree. Luz turned back towards Amity with a guilty little look on her face. Whether it was from apparently bugging the older human or something else, Amity couldn't decide.</p>
<p>She figured she should polish off her own drink as well, no telling when they would be back on the move again. Amity picked up her juice box and took another pull from it, although something felt off. The ground under her almost seemed to be... trembling?</p>
<p>Suddenly between her outstretched knees a large rodent-like nose popped out of the dirt. She and Luz stared at it for a couple seconds before-</p>
<p>"WAHHH!" Amity shrieked, heart thundering in her chest and kicking the thing in her haste to move back from it, eliciting a squeal as it pulled back underground. Luz made to jump up and dart over to her but a second nose (with pincher-like teeth right under it) popped out of the dirt right under her foot and latched on, making her yelp and flail wildly for balance.</p>
<p>Amity's cry had alerted the older teens with a curse and a snarl respectively.</p>
<p>"They're underground!" Amity shouted, rushing over to Luz who was trying to wrench her foot away from the thing.</p>
<p>"Ow owwwow it's getting really tight!" Luz hissed, and without hesitating Amity drew a spell circle and doused both the creature's exposed skin as well as Luz's earth-encrusted boot in a small fireball. It immediately let go with an angry squeal and retracted into the dirt leaving a small caved-in crater.</p>
<p>She got her shoulder under Luz's arm and they beat a hasty retreat over to Blight and Noceda who were readying fire and glyphs.</p>
<p>"Shit, how many are there?" Noceda asked no one in particular just as Amity and Luz made it over to them with a trail of noses bursting out of the ground behind them. One pushed out of the dirt right where Blight had just been standing, far enough to reveal more of its face. Before it had much chance to do anything else, the older witch stomped on it and then dashed before another one had the chance to grab her.</p>
<p>"Amity, I have an idea, hold on!" Luz was reaching into her pocket with the arm not slung around her shoulders and fished out a folded sheet of paper. She flicked it open to reveal a large glyph mark and tossed it to the ground at their feet. Picking up on her plan right away, Amity tapped it with a foot and the two of them shot up into the air where a tall ice pillar held them suspended.</p>
<p>"Good idea.. Blight, the trees!" Noceda shouted, and took out an ice glyph-marked paper of her own and used the smaller pillar it produced to basically catapult onto a thick curling branch. By the time she scrambled on top of the old cracked limb Blight had leapt into a tree of her own and was glaring down at the visible noses coming out of the ground with increasingly frantic speed.</p>
<p>With all of them off the ground and out of immediate grabbing range, they had a moment to observe the creatures as they explored further and further from their holes.</p>
<p>"Luz how did you know that would work?" Amity asked, shifting her arms carefully around Luz into a more comfortable position. It was precarious enough to be standing on the rather narrow ice pillar, but with Luz trying not to put weight on her pinched foot as well they had to be careful.</p>
<p>"Well, I saw a really old movie once about these underground worm monsters and they couldn't get you if you were on rocks and stuff..." She chuckled awkwardly. "So I thought I'd give that a try?" Amity just shook her head with a crooked smile on her face. <em>That's so Luz.</em></p>
<p>"What the hell are those things? They're gross." Blight seemed to be itching to drop down on one but managed to keep to her tree before getting herself into any trouble. By now the creatures had gotten bold enough to slip further out of their holes and the group were able to get a good look at them.</p>
<p>"You know," Amity squinted in thought. "They kinda look like... Rat wurms?"</p>
<p>She recalled that Boscha had been really into Giant Rat Wurm racing a while back, although Amity hadn't wanted much to do with the ugly critters at all. These things had long, hairy tubular bodies and their heads looked like what might happen if you shaved and then melted the face of a rodent and let it solidify back into place. Their muzzles tapered into a relatively small mouth with pairs of buck teeth sticking partly out and twitching fleshy noses perched right against their upper lip. Where eyes should have been there were just dark indents.</p>
<p>"Those are the ugliest fucking things I have seen all week." Noceda laughed from her branch. She snapped off a shard of wood and tossed it to the ground near one of the snuffling critters but it didn't react, possibly not sensitive enough to register something so small when so many of them were roiling through the dirt.</p>
<p>"Noceda. They're avoiding the mud." Blight called out, waving a hand languidly across the site. Amity had to compensate for Luz suddenly craning her neck around to look at their not-oasis.</p>
<p>Sure enough, where the dry, light dirt of the plains started to darken (where they had been resting and the sparse group of trees were) the worms tunneled up from or slithered around on top of with shocking ease. But the dirt quickly went almost black and sludgy the closer to the middle of the murky oasis that you looked, and the goopy surface was undisturbed.</p>
<p>"Hey you guys! Maybe they don't like water. We can probably use glyphs to keep them away until we make it to the other side?" Luz suggested, grasping Amity a bit more tightly while she carefully tested her foot on the surface of the ice pillar. Amity tried not to get distracted. She didn't want them to slip. Luz's tanned arm shifted a bit around her midsection. <em>Focus Amity!</em> she chided herself.</p>
<p>While the other three started exchanging the pros and cons of applying a large-scale hydro element to their trek across the plains, Amity watched as one of the worms poked at her knocked over juice box. It snuffled around for a moment and then gingerly took the box between thick yellow teeth and squeezed until the rest of the contents dribbled into its mouth.</p>
<p>"The rat drank my juice." The words tumbled out of her mouth before she really thought about them. Luz cocked her head back towards her with a, "Huh?". Amity jerked her chin towards the worm that was chewing on the juice box, or possibly trying to spit it out. "Over there, where we were sitting."</p>
<p>Luz focused on the creature as it dropped the mashed up remains of the drink packaging and started rooting around again. It was not too far from Luz's backpack, abandoned on the ground in their haste to move.</p>
<p>"Let's just shoot fire at them until they leave." Blight was yelling, irritation crossing her features and a flame spellcircle pulsing around her right wrist. Her limited patience with the strategy meeting seemed to be nearly used up.</p>
<p>"I think we can make friends with them!" Luz suddenly called out.</p>
<p>Nobody spoke for a moment.</p>
<p>"Are you heat-stroked right now?!"</p>
<p>"What the hell did she say?"</p>
<p>"Luz! You can't be serious!"</p>
<p>"Guys hear me out!" Luz turned excitedly to meet practically nose-to-nose with Amity. "They're obviously hungry, so let's see if we can get them to stop attacking us by giving them food instead!"</p>
<p>Noceda groaned from her branch but Luz ignored her and took a packaged cookie out of her Snacks-Only pocket and tried to open it with her teeth while still holding on to Amity with her other arm. Once open, she tossed the cookie to the ground and it was quickly scooped up by one of the worm creatures. It's long teeth clicked and scraped happily as it chewed the morsel down.</p>
<p>Amity thought for a moment. "You know... if these things are like the rat wurms I've seen used for racing, maybe we can get them happy enough to let us ride them?" Perhaps Luz's wackiness was rubbing off on her, though Luz was beaming at her like she hung the moon in the sky and nodding furiously.</p>
<p>Amity carefully lowered the both of them down so that Luz was sitting on the pillar with her legs dangling and Amity was standing behind her. She opened her witch's bag and took out a handful of the snacks that were supposed to last her (and Luz if she was honest) the whole week they were on their field trip for. She handed some to Luz and they proceeded to toss various fancy witch confectionary to the eager creatures below.</p>
<p>"This is.. I don't even know what this is." Noceda held her chin in her hand, watching the two of them feed the creatures like they were at a petting zoo. She sighed and flipped open a pocket on her pack.</p>
<p>Blight turned sharply to gape at Noceda when the human half-heartedly threw some edible thing she she'd had stored. Three worms coalesced onto the ration and shoved each other until a winner was decided and scooped up its prize. That was the last straw for the older witch apparently.</p>
<p>"Okay, no. This is fucking ridiculous." She snarled, leaping down from her branch to land heavily on the ground in a posture that screamed aggression and a second spell ring cast for her other hand, fireballs at the ready.</p>
<p>Amity could feel her eyes bug out as so many things happened nearly at once. Noceda and Luz were both yelling at Blight to get off the ground and many of the worms shot towards her or dove in to the dirt.</p>
<p>But as quickly as it all went in to motion, it stopped. Blight stood tense and wide-eyed as the half dozen worms above ground waited patiently around her in a semi-circle. A moment later, several twitching noses poked out of the ground close to her boots. With an excited little squeal, Luz threw a treat nearby and the closest worm snapped it up while the rest started milling around the wild-maned witch, snuffling at her boots and oozing docility. Noceda started chuckling incredulously and worked her way down the tree while Luz threw her arms up to cheer.</p>
<p>Blight's shoulders fell and she threw her head back in defeat with a loudly wailed, "Noooooooooooooo."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Whooooohooooo!" Luz yelled from atop her hairy steed.</p>
<p>Amity shot her a wide grin and urged her rat wurm on, the creature picking up on the squeeze of her heels and pushing ahead faster to catch up to Luz.</p>
<p>Noceda was off ahead and to their right, driving her rat wurm around boulders and uneven terrain at breakneck speeds. Though the creatures were basically blind, they were surprisingly trusting of their sighted companions and responded easily to being steered around obstacles. And once Blight had finally stopped fuming from the back of her almost spastic specimen she had started to get into it, leading to the two racing like lives were at stake.</p>
<p>Amity could feel her herself slowing to a crawl and she chucked one of her favourite kinds of sweet just ahead of her wurm's sensitive nose. No sooner than the morsel was snatched up did the wurm put on a burst of speed and made to catch up to its friends up ahead.</p>
<p>"Hey Luz, getting tired yet?" Amity sing-songed as she rolled on by, Luz gasping in delighted shock while scrambling to get a treat out for her rapidly slowing steed.</p>
<p>"No way!" She called back. Amity laughed a full laugh that felt as amazing as the wind rushing over her face. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had this much fun. Maybe she should have taken Boscha up on wurm racing after all.</p>
<p><em>Then again, it wouldn't be the same without Luz to race against,</em> she thought giddily.</p>
<p>With the marshland quickly approaching, she knew they would be parting with their newfound pals soon and into the next leg of their trek. But for now, she took the time to soak in the sheer freedom she found herself in. Despite being thrown into a strange-yet-familiar world filled with dangerous monsters and grumpy teenage survivors, there was a lightness to her entire being like a huge weight she didn't know she was bearing had been lifted from her shoulders. She whipped her mint-green hair from side to side and revelled in the rush of wind against her ears.</p>
<p>When they finally reached the point where the sparse grasses and parched dirt of the plains was thickening into proper plantlife and dark, moist earth, their wurm companions became less eager to continue on and eventually came to a stop. They topped the critters up generously from their dwindling supply of snacks and watched as they swivelled around and made their way back the way they came. Two of the wurms dove under the dirt and the other two continued to zip over the ground, albeit at a slower pace than when they had gangly riding partners to watch out for boulders.</p>
<p>The sun was far along in its descent and would meet and then sink behind the ridge they could barely see anymore. The colours of the sky above them were muted by the ever-present haze of ash, but the swirling mix of reds, purples and orange was a stunning sight regardless.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Here looks as good a place as any." Noceda said, slinging her bag down.</p>
<p>"Yeah, it's only mildly spooky here as opposed to really spooky." Amity joked nervously, looking around at what would be her second campsite on Turm Isle.</p>
<p>The four of them had picked along a trail until settling on a spot that was off the beaten path but not too far into the trees. Unlike the forest they had been in when entering this world, the marshlands were soggy and small pools of murky water were collected all over the place. The trees had long spindly branches with thick leaves of various colours that seemed to hang heavily. Lichen covered everything, from the trunks to the rocks to the edges of the paths that would have once been maintained for small carriages and travellers on foot.</p>
<p>"As much as I love creepy swamp camping I have to admit, this place is a little unsettling." Luz said as she wandered around the area. She was peering out into the darkness that was quite a bit easier to see in despite the mist as the less densely packed trees allowed plenty of moonlight through. Amity found herself unconsciously trailing behind Luz somewhat and unable to settle in until the others began unfolding bedrolls and mats to sit on. Amity hadn't noticed it last night, but Blight was actually keeping a fair amount of Noceda's camping gear in her witch's bag. She looked over to where Luz was chattering and making herself at home, unrolling her sleeping bag and setting out various little things she would use throughout the night. She made a mental note to ask Luz if she'd like her to keep the bulkier things in her witch's bag like Blight apparently was.</p>
<p>"Midget-me, come over here. I'm gonna show you the spell for illusory fire we use."</p>
<p>Amity grumbled, feeling her mood sour a bit. She really didn't want to get into it with the older witch right now, considering how tired they both were. But she was going to put a stop to that nickname soon enough. She wasn't <em>that</em> much shorter than her older self.</p>
<p>"Here." Amity scrambled a bit as Noceda dumped a small bundle of sticks into her arms. "That should get you started. Luz, come help me get more dry wood." They took off after that, each one corralling a small light spell with them as they picked their way around the roots and bushes.</p>
<p>Amity cautiously made her way over to the older witch and put the sticks down where she indicated. After snapping and arranging the sticks she kneeled on her worn pink mat and waited for Amity to do the same.</p>
<p>"I know it's going to take a few times to get this so I'm not expecting you to do it right away." Blight said to her while holding a hand up ready to cast. Amity was surprised at the more subdued tone, she wouldn't have expected much patience from her with teaching. Blight must have seen some of it show on her face from the  little light bobbing around their heads and tsked softly.</p>
<p>With a few instructions regarding exact finger posture, magic direction and what mental channels to follow, Blight drew her spell circle and conjured a ball of pink flame. When it split into existence a shockwave that she could see but not hear flowed over and around them, showing for just a few seconds where the edges of the spell's influence would be. Blight carefully pushed the flaming ball into the nest of sticks. "When the other two come back I'll show you the second part."</p>
<p>"..." Amity had plenty of questions she wanted to ask but the older witch's face looked so tired and closed off now with the increased light from the fire. Instead, she gingerly thanked Blight for showing her and moved away to get her camping things out. The firelight was pretty against the mist although it was harder to see out past it now.</p>
<p>Eventually Luz and Noceda wandered back, guided back by the pink light. With more wood available and all of them nearby Blight released the spell circle that was still around her wrist and the fireball lost its shape and seemed to relax into the offered fuel, looking like a proper campfire now aside from its colour.</p>
<p>"That's so pretty.." Luz murmured, mesmerised by the flames. "Can we do that too?" She immediately directed to Noceda, who shrugged.</p>
<p>"I haven't been able to figure it out. Glyphs are a lot more straightforward than spellweaving." She picked up the jacket that apparently served as her seat tonight and put it down next to Blight, much closer than Amity would have expected her to.</p>
<p>"Speaking of which, Luz it's your turn to get schooled. C'mere."</p>
<p>Luz darted over with an excited gasp and plopped down quite close to where the two older teens were sitting. Blight bristled and she seemed to get the hint, backing off but still eager to observe.</p>
<p>Noceda took out a piece of paper from one of her pockets, on it was a glyph that Amity wasn't familiar with (she only had a passing familiarity with Luz's usual glyphs, but this was definitely not one of them).</p>
<p>"So this is the same low-level healing glyph from before-" Noceda started, holding the glyph up between her index and middle fingers so Luz could see it.</p>
<p>"The one you used on my foot earlier, yeah!" She jumped in excitedly, and grinned sheepishly at Noceda's mildly exasperated look at the interruption.</p>
<p>"Since I've been healing Blight in parts over the last, I dunno several months or something we can just focus the glyph over the area that gets affected first by daily magic use." She said neutrally, edging closer to Blight who was fidgeting under the extra attention. Amity was a bit astounded by the older witch's apparent acceptance of being suddenly volunteered, although judging by her expression it was begrudging at best.</p>
<p>"The bile sac is right next to the heart so you can just place it anywhere nearby." Noceda continued, and helped herself to Blight's personal space by pinning the glyph in place against her chest with a finger, right over the heart. Amity was just as fascinated with the tolerance Blight was displacing as she was the actual healing lesson and inched in closer until she was right up beside Luz (who was practically vibrating with the effort it took not to speak).</p>
<p>"You're gonna want to try and focus on healing the weirdness that comes from corruption, if you just let the glyph do whatever it wants it'll just go and heal randomly. That might be fine normally but I think it helps the glyph's potency." She continued. After a moment where her eyes seemed to glaze over a bit, she then reached over with her other hand and tapped the glyph paper right in the middle.</p>
<p>"Ooh~" Luz cooed beside Amity and they both shifted closer to see. The glyph glowed a soft golden yellow and both it and the paper seemed to melt over Blight's body and sink into the fabric of her open jacket and shirt. At the same time she shut her eyes and tensed, then let out a little breath of relief and relaxed somewhat when the glow faded.</p>
<p>Keeping her face neutral, Noceda pulled back slowly and gave Blight her space. Amity and Luz wisely followed suit.</p>
<p>"So," Noceda turned towards them. "Amity I'm figuring you'll be more comfortable with Luz doing your healing." Amity jolted to attention, not having realized her intimate connection to the lesson. Further over, Blight was opening her eyes and subtly shifting away; there was a definite decrease in the pinched look she had been wearing before the glyph spell but being the subject of a lesson was obviously not her favourite past-time.</p>
<p>"OOH! So this is how you both can use magic and still be okay! Amity, I'll definitely help you with your healing!" Luz's eyes were bright from the fire and her own eagerness. "If you're okay with it that is..." She added, a bit more shyly. Amity nodded hard.</p>
<p>"Yeah, um, of course! Thank you Luz." She was definitely blushing. She scooted back in hopes that she could cover up her burning face with some of the obscurity that came with being next to an open fire, then turned her attention to Noceda. "And thank you for teaching us."</p>
<p>The older human nodded nonchalantly and handed Luz a paper with the glyph marked on it, presumably so she could start to practice it. She and Amity drifted further from the fire to settle where their camping gear was. Amity was fidgeting nervously while Luz was copying the glyph onto another small piece of paper.</p>
<p>"Annnd.. done!" Luz held up the paper triumphantly, accidentally elbowing one of her little floating light orbs. Amity could feel her pulse quicken and her fingers tightened a bit around the hem of her skirt.</p>
<p>"Okay Amity, wanna give this a try? I'll try to be gentle~" Luz grinned playfully, which didn't help with her nerves <em>at all.</em> Amity nodded without saying anything, not trusting her voice right then, and sat up a bit straighter in her kneeling position.</p>
<p>Luz's hand with the carefully copied glyph hovered in between them for a moment, and she seemed to be hesitating. Amity peeked up. Luz met her gaze,</p>
<p>"It just occurred to me, I'm kinda surprised that ol-, uh, other Amit-", She stumbled over her words a bit. " Bight wouldn't just use the glyph on herself. Noceda said that she's used them before."</p>
<p>Amity felt some of her nerves melt into the warm fondness she had developed around Luz's lack of familiarity with magic's inner workings. "Luz, it takes a really powerful or focused witch to use magic on them self. Unless you're doing illusions, it can actually be dangerous without training." She smirked at the wondrous look Luz was wearing. "Something tells me that Blight would rather a human who actually uses glyphs all the time fiddle with her heart than try doing it herself. I know I would."</p>
<p>Luz looked like she was mentally filing that away for later, and then lifted her hand with the glyph gently clasped in her fingers questioningly. With a nod from Amity, Luz reached over with the glyph and gingerly held it off-center on her chest. She could feel her face heating back up at the look of deep concentration Luz was giving the little square of paper against her, but before she could wonder if Luz could feel how hard her heart was beating she tapped the glyph with her other hand.</p>
<p>Like before, the glyph lit up in a soft golden yellow. Amity's eyes widened along with Luz's and she could feel a small tingling sensation as the glyph melted into her clothing, and then into <em>her</em>. It was hard to describe what it felt like to have the little spell flutter around inside her chest, possibly searching for something that wasn't right.</p>
<p>The glow faded, and Amity let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. Luz looked up at her with an awed expression.</p>
<p>"Well, do you feel any different? It didn't hurt did it?" She suddenly looked concerned, like it hadn't even occurred to her that it might have actually been an uncomfortable feeling. Amity was quick to reply.</p>
<p>"No! I mean, no it didn't hurt or anything." Her fingers brushed against where the glyph had been. "I don't really feel any different though." Luz deflated a bit.</p>
<p>"Think I didn't get it right maybe?" Her index fingers were pressing together in apprehension. Amity shook her head slowly, narrowing her eyes in thought. "I don't think that's it... I've barely used magic since we got here. I think the only spell I've casted was the fireball I used on the rat wurm that grabbed your foot." She offered a thoughtful quirk of her lips. "There probably wasn't much to heal in the first place."</p>
<p>Luz seemed to accept her theory and was looking thoughtfully at her boot, covered in dirt, bite indents and a few scorch marks.</p>
<p>"Those rat wurms..." Amity started suddenly. "They didn't look at all like the ones Boscha used to ride." Luz tilted her head in thought.</p>
<p>"Maybe that's what happens to the demons that have to live with all the bad stuff going on with the island's magic." She paled suddenly, and Amity realized why a second after.</p>
<p>
  <em>If that's the sort of thing that a demon has to look forward to here, what on titan does it do to witches when there's no one around to heal them with glyphs?</em>
</p>
<p>They both shared a shudder and didn't pursue the thought any further.</p>
<p>"Let's get some sleep Amity. We're going to be fine. We can get through this together." Luz grinned widely at her, macabre thoughts chased away in favour of her usual optimism. Amity smiled appreciatively at her.</p>
<p>"Thanks Luz." She twiddled her fingers a bit. "You know... I'm really glad you're here. I don't think I could handle this place by myself."</p>
<p>Luz beamed at her and wrapped her up in a quick hug, which she returned.</p>
<p>Falling asleep in the middle of a creepy swamp may not have been her idea of fun, Amity mused to herself, but at least she wasn't alone.</p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p>Luz watched Amity's sleeping form for a while. She felt restless herself though, and eventually got up to slowly pace around the edge of their campsite. Noceda had shown her how to see the difference between being in the illusory fire's influence, and being outside of it. It was subtle and easy to miss, since she could see the fire regardless of whether she was inside the barrier or not.</p>
<p>"Can't sleep?"</p>
<p>She started a little bit, and turned sheepishly towards Noceda who was sitting with her back against a tree and her arms lax in her lap. She had one eye open and was peering somewhat blearily over at Luz.</p>
<p>"I, uh.. yeah. I just wanna think about some stuff before I turn in." She meandered closer to Noceda, keeping her voice down and her steps light as she passed Blight. It probably wasn't overly necessary though, the older witch had been exhausted and looked dead to the world in sleep.</p>
<p>She stood a bit awkwardly and then decided to sit down, crossing her legs and facing Noceda. The older girl lazily opened her other eye and waited patiently while Luz seemed to struggle with what she wanted to say.</p>
<p>Her eyes fell over Noceda's dark beanie lying next to her. There seemed to be a folded up parchment tucked into the inner lining.</p>
<p>Luz rocked from side to side slowly as she spoke. "You know, I remember when my mom got me a beanie that looked just like that. Did yours give you that one too?" Noceda's gaze floated off into the mist before she answered. "Yeah. She got it on sale and the days were getting colder, so." She glanced back at Luz and offered an approving nod of her head.</p>
<p>"Quick thinking today with the worms. You get that from Tremors?"</p>
<p>Luz noticed the quick shift in topic but didn't say anything about it.</p>
<p>"Yeah." She grinned a bit mischievously, her memory of the night she had stayed up late and watched part of the horror movie featuring ravenous sub-terrestrial monsters still vivid. It hadn't even been all that long ago, probably less than a year..</p>
<p>"Mami caught me watching it though, she grounded me for two days." She suddenly straightened up and adopted a stern expression, pointing an angry finger at nothing in particular. "Luz! This kind of movie is horrible, so much swearing and guns! I don't want you watching anything like this under my roof. Go to your room right now young lady."</p>
<p>Luz relaxed and giggled to herself. Then she started rocking again, sobering quickly. She missed her Mami terribly.</p>
<p>"I guess it's kinda silly telling you, right? You probably went through the same thing." She shrugged.</p>
<p>She glanced back up at Noceda who was watching the moon above them with an unreadable expression on her face.</p>
<p>"Nah." She said after a moment. "I saw the whole movie. Mami never caught me." She looked like she was about to add something, but thought better of it.</p>
<p>Luz shifted closer and felt decidedly apprehensive. She really wanted to ask Noceda about why she was still on the Isles, but she'd been too nervous of the answer she might get.</p>
<p>"Can I... ask you a question?" She finally tried. Noceda twitched a shoulder in reply. Luz wrestled with the words in her head for a few moments although the older teen didn't seem to mind.</p>
<p>"Did you ever find a way back home?"</p>
<p>She remembered <em>exactly </em>what it felt like to see the briefcase containing her only way back to her Mami explode in Belos' hand.</p>
<p>Noceda breathed in slowly and then let it out in a tired rush. Luz was fiddling with a small tear in her leggings and could feel the tension building in her shoulders in anticipation of the answer. Since this world seemed to be ahead, chronologically speaking, in relation to the Boiling Isles she knew... it was possible that anything Noceda had discovered might apply to her if (<em>when,</em> she corrected) she and Amity found a way back to their dimension.</p>
<p>"No."</p>
<p>Luz swallowed hard, feeling a line of cold dread sink down her back. It wasn't like the two worlds were exact, there could be all sorts of factors that changed how the portals worked. Had Noceda even interacted with the Belos here? <em>Was</em> there even a Belos here?</p>
<p>"I didn't look for one. This is my home now."</p>
<p>Too many emotions for Luz to process made her jolt and stare at the older girl, mouth agape. Shock was feeding into dismay and feeding into betrayal and even anger...</p>
<p>
  <em>Did she never tell her mom where she went?</em>
</p>
<p>As if sensing Luz's sudden inner turmoil, Noceda drew in a deep breath through her teeth and then let it out with an exaggerated stretch, one arm curling almost painfully far behind her and the other reaching out towards the darkness, many of her joints crackling and popping until she collapsed back against her tree.</p>
<p>"Anyways, kid, we've got a lot of ground to cover tomorrow. Get some sleep."</p>
<p>Luz accepted the dismissal with some hesitation, but this was not a topic she intended to drop completely. Even if it wasn't her business, well... it <em>felt</em> personal somehow. She slowly got up and started heading back towards where her sleeping bag was, Amity snoring softly not far away. She uttered a rather automatic, "<em>Buenas noches",  </em>and couldn't tell if she was more worked up or more exhausted than before she had started pacing their campsite. Maybe she should have just counted stars until she fell asleep.</p>
<p><em>"Buenas noches."  </em>Came the quiet reply that she didn't hear.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. ACME Physics</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I had way too much fun with this chapter. Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Luz tried to open her eyes.</p><p>Given that her face was mashed into the crook of her elbow, it didn't work at first. When she was conscious enough to untangle herself she sat up and serenely took in the campsite on a slow swivel.</p><p>The sunlight was pouring down into their little slice of swamp and lighting up the ever-present mist that hovered and swirled just above the tops of the grass. Luz smiled dopily for a moment, appreciating the eerie but non-threatening quiet. Then she swiftly squirmed out of her sleeping bag, grabbed her little over-night pack, and darted off into some nearby brush. She'd been too nervous to answer the call of nature last night while it was dark.</p><p>A short while later and feeling much more refreshed, Luz wandered a little ways away from their campsite. She kept the welcoming pink glow of the fire in clear view. She could see that Amity and Noceda were still fast asleep and Blight was nowhere to be found like the morning before. She nibbled on a fruit bar and playfully stirred the mists around with her feet.</p><p>She wasn't sure if it was the colour or the motion that caught her eye first, but suddenly Luz's gaze snapped out further into the trees. Curiosity tugged her one way, but common sense told her to not wander off into demon-world swamps alone.</p><p><em>But what if this is something super helpful? </em>She thought to herself.</p><p><em>It could also be something super dangerous. </em>She thought back. She held her chin while she pondered her choices.</p><p><em>On the one hand, </em>She tilted her head to the right, <em>we are on a hostile monster-infested world with some kind of horrible and mysterious phenomenon going on that could definitely use some saving. </em>She tilted her head to the left. <em>On the other hand, since we're kind of in the saving business so long as Amity and I are stuck here, tantalizing elements showing up along our journey would be par for the course if we had some destined and epic reason for being here in the first place. </em>She grinned hopefully at her reasoning. <em>To not explore as many avenues of potential heroic gain would be a complete travesty and an insult to mystical adventures everywhere! </em></p><p>That cinched it. Mind made up, Luz took one quick look towards the merrily flickering flames of their campfire and then picked her way carefully along the uneven terrain in the other direction. It only took a few minutes to come up upon what had attracted her so.</p><p>It had a coral-like structure although it was clearly some kind of dark wood that made up the thing's trunk and limbs. Covering the squat plant were blossoms with long, feathery petals that slowly undulated and rolled in a way that didn't quite match the humid air currents around it. It didn't have any leaves as far as Luz could tell, and unlike the trees and swamp plants around her there were no exposed, wiry roots to help stabilize the thing when the water level fluctuated. The middles of the wispy petals were a deep magenta and they brightened to nearly white by the edges which looked so delicate it was difficult to see exactly where they really ended.</p><p>She was just about to cup one of the petals in her hand when a gentle but firm pressure butted up against her hip. She realized all at once that she had gone right up to the mysterious plant without really realizing it and that a small, deer-like creature was insistently nosing her away from it.</p><p>"Oh! Well hey there little guy!" She blinked her eyes rapidly, still feeling a bit drawn towards the plant but as the critter pushed her away from it the blossoms closest to her seemed to reach out forlornly, like they didn't want her to go.</p><p>Suddenly the plant struck her as a bit suspicious. Actually, a <em>lot</em> suspicious. She took one last look at it before focusing on the little creature. The delayed realization nearly made her heart explode.</p><p>
  <strong>"<em>¡Dios mííío!</em>  You're so CUTE!"</strong>
</p><p>The critter resembled a small deer with a pair of bugged-out eyes, tiny curved horns, and two little fangs poking out from under its lip. Luz's sudden increase in volume seemed to spook it and it flitted ahead of her by a few graceful strides.</p><p>"Oh no, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" Luz held out a hand and tried to soften her voice and appear as non-threatening as possible. <em>Animal companion...?</em></p><p>The deer didn't walk back towards her but it didn't move away either, watching Luz with rapt attention. Or as rapt as it's wall-eyed look would allow. It's long ears swivelled out, making it's goofy appearance even more endearing.</p><p><em>More like <strong>en-deering</strong>, amiright?  </em>She giggled to herself and cautiously crept forward, murmuring reassurances at the creature. It was very likely the deer had intervened in what could have been a dangerous interaction between her and that mystifying plant. She managed to reach it and she gently placed a hand on its fuzzy head. <em>Animal companion...!</em></p><p>"I'll bet that tree was something bad and you just saved me didn't you!" She grinned down at it, and as it started to turn away and leave she felt a pang of disappointment but it disappeared when the creature stopped and looked back at her quizzically.</p><p>"I wonder if you can understand me? Maybe you could come along with us and be our guide through the swamp!" She bounced excitedly along as the deer carefully navigated over the mucky, root-infested floor. It seemed to know where it was going through the remains of the morning mist and Luz found her attention wandering towards all of the interesting little bits of the environment that took on a very different quality this early in the day. Even the lichen that covered many of the spindly trees looked different, there were tiny white flowers among the dark greens and browns! She absently patted the deer's back as they went; it didn't seem to mind. <em>Animal Companion!!</em></p><p>They came upon a wide earthy platform, topped with grass that was much greener and softer than the murk around it and the sunlight, muted though it was, filtered down ideally. The deer hopped up onto it and gave a playful little jump, seeming to invite her to enjoy the secret spot of greenery among the dingy swamp.</p><p>With a little squeal Luz stepped over the bank and knelt in the cool grass. The sun was warm on her skin and she tilted her face up towards the sky with a blissful little sigh escaping her.</p><p>The deer was lying down but shuffled over to her, cuddling up and burrowing it's head against her side. She thought she might die.</p><p>"You know little guy, I thought this place was scary, and smelly, and maybe more than I can handle. But it's times like this that remind me, this is what epic adventures are about! Courageously discovering the unknown and strengthening your character into that of a true hero!" She beamed down at the critter and it looked up at her with it's funny bulging eyes, it's spindly legs thoroughly entangled in her own now. She hadn't noticed the little black lines running along its face, over the muzzle and meeting at it's snubby nose.</p><p>She noticed it had a cut on its lower lip, and she swelled with eagerness. "Hey, I can repay you for helping me! I'm learning healing glyphs, my new friend- she's like, an older angstier version of me but that's complicated so-" she squirmed a bit while trying to pull out the healing glyph Noceda had given her from her pocket without dislodging the deer. She could just get another one to continue practising with later.</p><p>"Aha!" With a triumphant brandishing of the somewhat rumpled glyph paper she directed her attention back to the deer; it was hard to tell if it was lying more on her or the grass.</p><p>"Oh no.." The cut in its lip was wider than she thought, it seemed to be widening even as she looked at it. The creature's eyes weren't conveying any pain though, it seemed almost zoned out actually. The little black lines along its face were splitting apart.</p><p>That little niggling feeling at the back of her head that would turn out to be common sense dropped into cold dread running down her back as the cuts, now on the upper lip as well, slowly split open along the lines of the creature's face and parted wider as they reached further down to its chest. Horror crept into her expression while the deer's face and neck were opening like some macabre parody of an lily.</p><p>
  <em>Move! Move move move!! </em>
</p><p>Flight instinct kicked in and Luz launched back away from its increasingly monstrous form... or she would have but the purpose of the deer's snuggling became terribly clear. The spindly legs gripped hers now, almost bruising with the pressure, and as it got larger it began to pin her down rather than just hold her.</p><p>Breathing rapidly, Luz started shouting as loud as she could, "HELP! AMITY, ANYONE, I THINK I'M IN BIG TROUBLE HERE!" She hated taking her eyes off the thing that was now taller than her, grotesque fleshy petals spreading out and hot, rancid breath washing over her. But she spared a few precious seconds to try and pick out a different type of glyph, anything that could help! But the thicker limbs and heavy lower petals were making it very difficult to even reach her pockets, let along pull anything out.</p><p>She couldn't see the comparatively tiny and shrivelled lower half of its body now, the front half looking like some huge starfish with a frankly alarming amount of little teeth that looked <em>just</em> like the deer's fangs had. The limbs were beginning to curl around her and when the top-most ones blotted out the sunlight, it was like a switch flipped.</p><p>Luz screamed. She furiously batted at it with her arms but she had no leverage in her swings because of her sitting position! It's teeth were scraping her arms up and it seemed to shiver in anticipation with the presence of blood. Something hooked onto her left shoulder and she yelped as her upper body was roughly wrenched to the ground.</p><p>"Close your eyes!" Blight yelled, holding her down and a torrent of purple sludge was bursting out of the spell circle she held right in front of the creature and almost brushing Luz's nose.</p><p>Abomination goo was sloshing out all over the three of them but most of it was insistently forcing its way into the monster's mouth, the huge fleshy limbs trying to close around on the sudden flood. Luz wiped her face and spluttered, trying to get it out of her nose and as the creature started to thrash, she managed to unhook and straighten her legs. That was all Blight needed to grab her roughly with both hands, leaving the circle suspended in the air, and pull her back until they both toppled off of the grassy ledge.</p><p>With a grunt, Luz pushed herself up onto shaky legs and looked up, partly in awe and partly in fear, as the now fully manifested abomination was half-stuck in the monster's mouth and was attempting to stand. The creature was bleeding now at the corners of its mouth-petals, entirely not meant to be wrenched so far open.</p><p>Suddenly Blight was in her face.</p><p>"Get back to the campsite Luz!" She shouted angrily, though her wild eyes and suddenly apparent <em>fangs</em> were quickly directed back towards the fight. The older teen shoved her and Luz snapped out of her half-dazed state and turned on her heel, heading back the way she came. One last glance back showed her the half-swallowed abomination standing with the deer-lily-starfish-<em>thing </em>held high up in the air, it's tiny back legs flailing in panic. She thought she heard Blight yell something like, "Abomination, Suplex!" and she turned away before she could hear and feel the ground shake with the force Blight's abomination must have slammed it into the ground with.</p><p>Luz ran blindly, catching herself on some roots and she grabbed a tree to stop herself from falling over. Her legs felt like lumps of taffy. She stared at her shaking hands, grasping the moss-covered bark of her tree for dear life. She didn't know if it was seconds or minutes that she just stood there, rattling with the force of her heartbeat in her chest.</p><p>"It was supposed to be... a cute animal companion..." She whispered to herself. She slowly raised her wide eyes to cast around her surroundings. She had no idea where she was now, all sense of direction completely lost. Her head snapped up when she heard Amity's voice.</p><p>"Luz! Luz where are you?"</p><p>"Here..." She murmured, then louder. "Here! Amity I'm over here!" She pushed off from the tree and stumbled towards the young witch's voice. The moment she saw Amity she rushed over and grabbed her by the elbows, Amity recoiling a bit in surprise.</p><p>"Amity don't follow the cute animal companion! It turns into a plant monster and tries to eat you!" It all tumbled out hysterically. She felt hysterical. Amity was looking at her with wide, concerned eyes and was at a loss for words. Yup, definitely hysteria.</p><p>Noceda appeared in her view with a mixture of fear and frustration on her face and corralled the two of them back towards camp. If Luz was at all unsure of the older human's familiarity with their other language, those fears were put to rest because Noceda was <em>ranting</em> at her mostly in furious Spanish while she charged them all ahead.</p><p>Luz caught Amity trying to get a word in to her while her eyes darted all over Luz's arms. The scratches were shallow but there was a lot of them and the bleeding looked much worse than it probably was. It didn't hurt, but then again she was likely in shock. That seemed rational.</p><p>
  <em>See? Rational. Not hysterical. I'm a rational, not-hysterical, completely-in-control-</em>
</p><p>"-Suicidal idiot!" Noceda was gasping heavily and stalking around the campsite. It seemed like she didn't know whether to keep yelling at her or go tearing through her bag for medical supplies.</p><p>"Luz, what happened?" Amity was trying to move her towards a mat lying near the fire, presumably to sit and calm down by the flames. Luz shakily lowered herself on it and made herself somewhat comfortable. She was fairly sure she didn't want to risk standing up again for a while. She looked herself over and took tally of her state in an almost disconnected sort of way.</p><p>Her leggings were torn and muddy, and she was bruised where the creature's bony legs had gripped her. One of her boots was gone. Her arms were awash in little rivulets of smeared blood and she could feel her pajama shirt and short hair plastering uncomfortably to her sweaty skin.</p><p>Amity was trying to get her attention, and Luz reluctantly faced her. She hoped she wasn't about to break down into tears or anything embarrassing like that in front of the witch. Amity just gave her an exasperated little smile.</p><p>"Let's get you cleaned up, Luz."</p><p>Luz smiled back gratefully. She felt really lucky to have someone like Amity with her.</p><p>~*~</p><p>Blight was stalking towards the campsite, limbs stiff and expression stormy. Noceda growled and raked a hand under her beanie and through her hair with frustrated dread. She wasn't looking forward to the impending conversation.</p><p>Without any warning, Noceda turned heel and made off into the trees with Blight picking up speed after her muttering, "Oh you're not getting away from me." The witch had barely spared a glance at Luz and Amity by the dwindling fire.</p><p>With practised ease, Noceda navigated the tricky terrain. She wasn't running (especially not with an angry Blight on her tail), but she was moving along faster than her usual sedate pace. She could hear the witch stomping along after her just waiting for her to stop.</p><p>When she was sure they were out of earshot from their troublesome younger counterparts, she crossed her arms and stood her ground. The spot she chose was quite mucky, maybe that would dissuade Blight from waltzing right up and punching her in the head or something.</p><p>No such luck.</p><p>"We have them less than two days and one of them runs off to get herself eaten. Luz put a leash on your- your, <em>younger you,</em> or something because she's clearly just as oblivious as you used to be." Blight was practically breathing down her neck, so Noceda turned around to face her. They were both shivering a bit with adrenaline but seeing Noceda affected by Luz's close encounter just seemed to make Blight angrier.</p><p>"I knew something like this was going to happen, we're not ready to protect ourselves <strong>and</strong> a couple of clueless kids." Blight snapped at her, mirroring Noceda's defensive posture and not backing down an inch. Noceda's fingers were kneading the muscles of her tanned arms just to have an outlet for her tension, lest she snap back at Blight and their discussion became much more physical.</p><p>"The kid made a mistake. A really stupid mistake that's probably going to leave a hell of an impression, okay? You and me, we've screwed up countless times, it's how you get stronger around here." Noceda said evenly. She was angry with Luz for running off but she needed to remain calm in front of Blight when she was so riled up.</p><p>The witch snorted and broke eye contact to glare at random things around them. She was chewing on her words for a moment before uttering, "What would have happened if she died today?" She tilted her head, pinning Noceda with a narrow-eyed look that was more than just anger. "What would you have done if I hadn't gotten there in time and I had to show you her mangled corpse just so you'd believe me?" Under the bluster and irritation, Blight was deeply unsettled. She was afraid.</p><p>"That didn't happen!" Noceda swung her fists down, shaking with anxious tension. The idea of losing the kid when she had just gotten here, with all her cheerfulness and her stupid optimism... "She's fine now and she'll know not to wander off alone. I'll talk to her and make sure of it Blight. Just drop it."</p><p>The command seemed to make the witch's figurative mint-green hackles raise up and she uncrossed her arms to point to the top of Noceda's head.</p><p>"Maybe you oughta give her <em>that</em> so you don't have to watch her every step of the way, and you can finally stop dwelling endlessly over whether to use it or not." She said icily.</p><p>Noceda went very still. That was a low blow. She hadn't even realized Blight had picked up on her conflictions regarding the innocuous-looking parchment kept safely in her beanie. Her eyes rose to meet Blight's face and she just looked through the witch.</p><p>Seeming to realize the nerve she hit was too tender, Blight stayed quiet but didn't look away. After a moment though her gaze drifted and her shoulders dropped, the aggression melting out of her body language and shame creeping into her expression. She shifted her weight uncomfortably and backed off a couple steps. "Sorry." She muttered.</p><p>The two of them were silent for a few moments, but eventually Noceda drew in a long breath and decided to let the witch off the hook. "Whatever. We should get back to those two before something else tries to eat one of 'em."</p><p>Blight's posture relaxed marginally and she kept her head turned so Noceda couldn't see the relief on her face. Then she perched a hand on her hip and pointed back towards the camp with the other.</p><p>"I'm gonna slap that kid upside her stupid head when we get back. You and me haven't fought in almost two whole days and she had to go ruin it." She tossed her wild hair back and re-crossed her arms, almost suspiciously close to pouting. Noceda's lips twitched in wry humour. <em>We only fight that often 'cause you're a crazy bitch on a hair trigger to fly off the handle at any moment. Not like it's entirely your fault though.</em></p><p>"Just... leave the kid alone, alright? I'm gonna chew her out later and we can all move on." She stole a glance at Blight who was staring off towards the ground now and risked brushing the backs of her knuckles up her pale arm. The witch didn't acknowledge the touch but didn't flinch away. She seemed to be making a conscious effort to even out her breathing.</p><p>"You and me got into a lot of stupid shit when we were their age." Noceda offered with a hopeful quirk of her lips. "We turned out okay, right?"</p><p>Blight looked up at her with an expression that was clearly not impressed with her assessment of 'okay', but then she deflated somewhat. She knew Noceda wasn't so quick to give up on them, or anyone really, and holding on to her irritation was pointless. She still had to snark back though.</p><p>"When we were their age the Isle was just chaotic and dangerous, not some decaying hellscape."</p><p>The irony of witches looking back on the isle as anything other than a decaying hellscape from the beginning was not lost on Noceda. She grinned wider, feeling her upper hand in the conversation. One last little push then...</p><p>"Well now those greenhorns have us; the dashing Luz Noceda who vows to save the Isle and her trusty side-kick Blight who can beat the ass of any-", She would have continued her impassioned speech but Blight had launched forward and wrestled her into a headlock before she could finish.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Some time later, Noceda and Blight eventually rejoined them at the campsite. Luz was changed into a fresh set of clothes (Amity had brought over her bag) and was gingerly wiping at her arms with a wet washcloth. She had used two bottles of water and one of Amity's flasks to get back to some kind of baseline definition of 'normal'.</p><p>Luz felt herself shrinking back as the older teens approached. Noceda went for her backpack but Blight kept going, right up to her and Amity tensing beside her.</p><p>Luz had to crane her neck to keep her wide eyes on Blight's face as she stood there, glaring down at her. Her lips parted to try for some kind of thank-you or apology, she wasn't sure which. Blight didn't give her a chance when she twirled her hand and pulled something out of thin air, then dropped it right next to Luz.</p><p>Luz gulped hard and stared wordlessly at the wrenched-off back leg of the deer.</p><p>"Consider that your how-not-to-be-hunted lesson." Blight said coldly, then stalked off to gather up her stuff from the night before. From the other side of the remains of their fire Noceda peered at the leg and then barked out, "Blight!"</p><p>"I'm going on ahead." She said simply once she had stuffed her bedroll and things in her witch's bag. Luz curled in on herself as the older witch strode off through the spindly trees, presumably towards the gorge they were hoping to cross.</p><p>She could feel Amity's eyes on her and she went back to idly wiping off her arms where some of the cuts were still beading up with little blood droplets.</p><p>Luz felt awful.</p><p><em>I can't believe I did that. </em>She thought for like the hundredth time. <em>I'm like a little kid, running off after interesting things.</em></p><p>Guilt gnawed at her stomach, and she stole a glance at Amity who was quietly nibbling on a breakfast bar. She had helped Luz change and wipe off the grunge from her harrowing encounter, but now her friend had gone rather silent. That made her feel even worse.</p><p><em>Can't say I blame her. </em>Luz blinked hard a couple times. <em>I scared them, all of them. I'm so stupid.</em></p><p>She likely would have kept kicking herself like that but Noceda drew her attention as she appeared next to them. Luz peered up at her nervously, not quite sure what to expect from the older human that had taken them under her wing.</p><p>Without saying anything, Noceda crouched down and held out a hand expectantly, a pair of healing glyphs between her other hand's fingers. Luz slowly extended an arm to be healed with clinical swiftness, then the other. The shallow but stinging scratches were gone and the mild pain with them, but it almost didn't seem to make a difference.</p><p>Luz watched with a sad little frown as Noceda took a couple steps away from them and placed a glyph paper where the ground started to incline slightly away from them. She tapped it and immediately turned away to go pack up her own things. The glyph glowed a cheerful light blue and where the paper sunk into the ground a spring of clear, sparkling water burbled up a little over a foot tall and ran down the incline to dilute the mud of the swamp around it.</p><p>Amity gave her a look that she couldn't quite interpret, but she offered Luz her pair of white slip-ons from her backpack. She was distantly glad she had brought both shoes and boots for the field trip.</p><p>They both washed up properly and refilled any empty water containers they had while Noceda waited quietly by the trees, looking lost in thought.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>The sun was high in the sky now, though it was even more obscured than normal. The trees were far less dense here and provided weak cover and with the grey clouds rolling in, even Luz could tell that it was going to rain later.</p><p>"Think the rain is boiling here too?" She asked Amity, plugging away beside her. The witch shrugged and tilted her head up towards the sky to assess the threatening clouds herself. Luz was relieved that Amity didn't seem to be mad with her, but they were still far more quiet than usual as they walked all morning. Luz had been surprised when Amity suddenly offered to take her rolled up sleeping bag, and with it safely tucked away in her nice clean witch's bag it did make a noticeable difference.</p><p>Luz looked up ahead quickly when she heard Noceda call out. She didn't seem to be facing them though, and Amity helpfully added, "I think she's talking to Blight."</p><p>They kept moving along and eventually Luz could make out the edge of the marsh through the trees, the very sudden edge.</p><p>Like they had hoped, the fissure that had widened into a canyon in the plains was much narrower here. Given that both sides of the cliffs formed were sloughing their top-most layers of dirt and streamlets and trees into the gorge it seemed like the massive break was fairly new.</p><p>As Luz and Amity got closer she finally saw Blight, perched at the cliff's edge. Noceda was pacing, sizing the gap up.</p><p>"Wow... that's still pretty wide." Luz commented when she was close enough to really view the scale. Amity crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes as she judged the distance. "It looks wider than a grudgby field, that's for sure." She announced.</p><p>"It's at least four-hundred feet." Noceda sighed out. The gorge slowly curved in both directions, becoming obscured by trees and the ground level so it was impossible to tell if it was getting narrower much further out. "It would be a crap-shoot to follow it along the top like this and see if it closes up more. It's going to rain in a few hours so we might as well just wing it here."</p><p>Luz perked up hopefully when Noceda turned to her with a challenging sort of look. "Ready to get your construction on?"</p><p>~ * ~</p><p>"Okay, again! One-Two- Go!"</p><p>Luz slammed her hands down on the large plant glyph carved into the ground and a huge vine shot up, missing Noceda's angled vine by a wide margin.</p><p>"Shit!" Noceda cursed, scratching furiously at her scalp through her beanie in frustration. Luz collapsed on the ground more out of disappointment than real exhaustion. Noceda's stiff vine jutted out at least a hundred feet over the gorge, and came out of the ground at least seventy feet back from the edge. Luz's shot up nearly vertical right by the edge of the cliff and held, but it was too far off to support the much longer angled vine and Noceda's groaned loudly, warning of its imminent collapse like the others before it. Amity came over and offered Luz a juice box, which she gratefully took and opened.</p><p>They had discovered that making a plant bridge wasn't as simple as it seemed. No matter what they tried, any structure they attempted to suspend from their side of the gorge would collapse under its own weight long before they could get it to reach the other side. Plus, as it turns out, bending giant plants according to their increasingly frazzled wills proved to be challenging as the vines and trunks and boughs would be trying to do their own thing as they wildly manifested from seemingly nothing.</p><p>"I bet if Willow were here she could get this to work." Luz grumbled around the little drinking straw dangling from between her teeth. She rubbed at her arm with her other hand and then switched. It seemed like her brain hadn't quite gotten the memo that her arms were <em>fine</em> and she kept feeling phantom pain and itchiness lace up and down her nerves.</p><p>"Everything for miles is gonna see all this shit! Fuck." Noceda was ranting and pacing over by her latest attempt. Blight sat looking bored and anxious from the top of one of the trunk-pillars standing up vertically, keeping watch over the area as it slowly became more and more populated by giant flora.</p><p><em>Think. Think think.</em> Luz ground a knuckle against her forehead, trying to come up with another plan. They had tried making thick trees grow from their side of the cliff, suspended vines as far out as they could, and with each failed plan the storm clouds were getting progressively closer and the air heavier. Luz hadn't the courage to ask if the rain here was as bad as it is on the Boiling Isles, but judging from the older teen's increasing urgency, it probably was.</p><p>Their latest attempt was supposed to be a sort of cantilever bridge, and they were trying to make the viney beams meet so they could build the bridge in parts as they made their way across. They had gotten about a third of the way when the entire structure had started to buckle and they had to race back to safety before the part-bridge collapsed and fell into the gorge, taking a sizable chunk of root-infested cliffside with it. Noceda had insisted they try again with more support, but it was getting harder and harder to keep forcing the glyph-plants to act how they wanted.</p><p>"Why don't you try a really, really big glyph?" Amity suggested gently, standing awkwardly at Luz's side and looking around at the war zone. Luz shook her head and let herself drop the rest of the way to the ground, lying flat on the uncomfortable coarse grass.</p><p>"Assuming we can even get them to go bigger than what we've tried, I don't think we'd be able to control whatever comes out much." Luz groaned and threw a tired arm over her eyes.</p><p>Amity put a knuckle to her lips as the thought, trying to come up with any kind of suggestion. They're been at it for over an hour and neither witch had any magical solutions to add, so they (or at least Amity) were trying to brainstorm while Luz and Noceda put any ideas into practice.</p><p>Luz shifted her arm to watch Amity. Her 'thinking posture' would have been cute if she wasn't feeling so disheartened. The witch was looking up and down the pillar that Blight was perched on, throwing bits of bark and twigs from it in boredom.</p><p>"Maybe we could... use the Thorn Vault to launch a boulder with a really long vine tied to it... to the other side? And we could tight-rope across." Amity was pondering out loud, but made a face right after she'd said it.</p><p>Luz imagined the scheme but arrived at what Amity's conclusion had probably been; assuming they could even get a heavy boulder with an equally heavy vine rope attached across the gorge... tight-rope walking across would be terrifying, and placing an awful lot of trust on that vine to hold up.</p><p><em>We could launch ourselves. We're nice and light. </em>Luz thought to herself, not for the first time though. Their vineapults weren't nearly long enough to get them across, even with the sheer momentum they could force out of the remarkable growth the glyphs provided the plants. <em>If only we could fly across. Or have some way to glide</em>.</p><p>Unfortunately, a paraglider was one of the few things Eda <em>hadn't</em> suggested Luz take on the trip.</p><p>"I wonder if any of us have a bedsheet." Luz thought out loud, drawing a quirked eyebrow from Amity. <em>If we were tiny we could just hang on to a leaf like they do in cartoons. </em>She held up her hands in front of her face in imitations of ducks.</p><p><em>We could make a big leaf. </em>Her left hand-duck said.</p><p>Her right hand-duck shook its head no. <em>It would probably rip. Plus it would be hard to hold on to.</em></p><p>Her left hand-duck wrinkled its knuckles in thought. <em>When people use gliders they use ropes and harnesses to hold on.</em></p><p>Her right hand-duck tilted back and its thumb dropped open in a silent groan. <em>Okay so let's make a harness and tie it to either side of a leaf. Which then rips. You need to reinforce the parachute part or it's just a strong as a leaf. Which isn't strong!</em></p><p>Luz narrowed here eyes in thought, then she and left hand-duck came to the same epiphany. Amity was looking at her like she had three heads.</p><p>Luz grinned widely and then shot her right hand a disapproving look. "You're such a pessimist." She told it.</p><p>She scrambled to her feet and jogged over to one of the huge vines and with some effort tore off one of the leaves by it's tough little stem. She sat down and pulled a marker out of her pocket and drew a plant glyph on the leaf.</p><p>Amity was slowly wandering towards her like one might approach a wild animal but Luz blocked everything out so she could concentrate. She could see the glyph in her mind's eye. She could feel the veins of the leaf under her fingers. She thought back to how she would focus on her ice glyphs, manifesting the ice as narrow and pointed (like when she hit Belos in the face, ha!), or flared like the mushroom had in the plains. She recalled her connection to the fire glyph she'd once copied from Boscha's thrown grudgby ball. She hadn't realized at the time but that fire glyph made fire that couldn't hurt the user. She had later been able to <em>change</em> the properties so that it was just regular fire by focusing when she cast it.</p><p>And light glyphs. Her light glyphs practically felt like an extension of her now. She could make them bigger or smaller, brighter or dimmer. She could make a light ball follow her, or blink off with a thought. She once made a small group of them chase King around the Owl House. She had a connection to the magic that could respond to her very <em>will</em>.</p><p>If only she could make the plant glyph respond to her will too. <em>Push it gently, allow the intricacies. Let it improvise, it's a living thing too. Show it what you need it to be and let it get there.</em></p><p>She was dimly aware of the movement on her lap, and when she slowly let out her breath she straightened up to try and release the kinks that had built in her back from her hunched state. She opened her eyes slowly, readjusting to the dim afternoon light. She blinked in surprise at someone's knees, looking up at the three shocked faces staring down at her.</p><p>Noceda was scratching the back of her neck and entirely captivated by what she'd been doing. Blight was gaping openly and Amity was shaking her fists in excitement and biting her lower lip. Luz looked down.</p><p>Her leaf had grown, some four feet across and matching the larger ones on the biggest of their vines. The veins of the leaf had thickened, shifted, formed a latticework across the blade and extended past the rim in so many places where they curled down and formed a crude set of command lines. They curled and weaved in on themselves, looking thicker and viney where all the lines connected into a sort of seat like a park swing. She felt herself swell with pride and beamed up at her shell-shocked audience.</p><p>"Now we just gotta make them bigger!" She grinned.</p><p>"We're gonna die." Blight murmured.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Luz opened her eyes and let out her breath in a <em>whoosh</em>. She looked down at her second fully-sized, one-hundred-percent organic Leaf Paraglider.</p><p>She glanced over at the two smaller attempts Noceda had made, abandoned, and allowed herself a little internal whoop of victory. The older teen was able to grasp the concept and her leaves did in fact get large and veiny, but her impatience got the better of her and the resulting glider just wouldn't form well enough to be usable.</p><p>Luz got up to retrieve another leaf from one of their many glyph-born mega vines and she could see Noceda clap her hands down on an arrangement of glyphs carved into the dirt. She 'ooh"-ed at the several woodsy pillars roughly a story tall that wove into each other at the top, like a sort of teepee. She shook her head vigorously and went back to her pair of gliders, newest leafy volunteer in hand. She needed to concentrate.</p><p>She was using additional leaves and roots to build a crude set of harnesses and she was fairly confident with her attempts to make control lines for the leading and trailing edges of the two nearly-finished gliders. Her brief fascination with powerless flight when she was twelve was coming in handy now, though a lot of the specifics she had forgotten. But with a will there's a way!</p><p>Noceda had finished her experiments and was carving the last of her needed glyphs in the dirt when Luz jogged over to announce that the two gliders were done. They had agreed that it would be a slightly safer choice to go with two gliders holding two passengers each, especially considering that it was only Luz and Noceda that had any idea of how gliders in general worked.</p><p>"Alright, well I'm ready here. Wanna bring them over?" Noceda told her, looking nervous and excited at the same time. Luz jumped and grabbed Amity to help her, and she was pleased to see Blight following at a slower pace, Noceda right behind her.</p><p>"Okay," Luz said giddily as she hovered over one of the gliders. She waited until everyone was close enough before she continued. "These obviously don't fold up like real paragliders do so we'll just have to carry them kinda semi-closed. Just don't let the lines snag on anything, and we'll be good to go!"</p><p>Amity hesitantly took hold of one side of the thirty-some-odd foot leaf and Luz took the other. The contraption probably weighed almost half of one of them and was both easy to lift and odd to walk with, folded loosely like a taco. Luz threw a glance over at Blight and Noceda who were carefully moving along with theirs.</p><p>When they reached the area with Noceda's latest set of glyphs Luz took a moment to get herself into the simple seat-like harness that was connected to all of the veins growing out of the leaf's rim. She waited impatiently for the older teen to then take control of the next step.</p><p>"'Kay, Amity stand over here, try not to activate the glyph. Luz over here." Noceda instructed. Luz and Amity, (who had been proud of Luz's actual glyphweaving but seemed much more nervous now that the plan was in action) stood where they were directed. Noceda stood at the edge of the set of glyph circles she had carved and asked, "Ready?"</p><p>Luz shot a nervous grin over to Amity, who shook her head then quickly corrected with a nod. "Ready!" Luz affirmed, unable to contain her excitement and hopping a little, which made her half of leaf-glider wobble along. Both she and Amity were on either side of the ring of glyphs, now holding the flexible leaf of the glider closed by the lines, making it look something like a big green tortilla that was pinched closed.</p><p>"Got your glyphs?" Noceda asked, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Yup!" Luz confirmed again.</p><p>"Alright, send a prayer up. Here we go..." Noceda said more to herself than anyone, and she rose both her hands while shutting her eyes and focusing, hard, on what she needed the glyphs to do. Luz felt a thrill in her stomach as she saw her hands come down and activate the ring of connected plant glyphs.</p><p>Much like the magic sign she had made for Eda that day they did a body swap, this ring of glyphs lit up in turn by their connected lines. Luz whooped out loud as five woodsy pillars started lifting from the ground, Amity standing on one and Luz on another. As they rose higher and higher Luz could feel her heart pounding in fear and excitement and anticipation. Amity looked frankly terrified as she wobbled to keep her balance. Noceda was doing a good job of keeping the tops of their trees relatively flat and stable, the odd set of branches were peeling off to the sides and it felt strange to have the wood under her feet flex and move.</p><p>They were picking up speed and Luz sent a silent prayer of reassurance Amity's way as the witch groaned nervously. Their ascent became a bit rockier as the five columns drew together and started leaning into and scraping each other as they grew higher. By the time they had slowed to a stop, the structure was at least ten stories tall, each column supporting the other. That must have been the limit of Noceda's reach over the large glyphs. It likely wouldn't tip over or snap in the middle right away, but there was no knowing when it would give out so they had to be quick. Had the pillars been on any kind of angle, they likely would have already started to fall in that direction.</p><p>It was a good bit windier up here, and Luz called over to Amity in warning, "Don't let the sail unfurl yet okay!"</p><p>Amity nodded, squinting, and determinedly not looking down. She was holding many of the leaf's long vein-lines spread out across the leaf, keeping it closed, and standing about a third of the sail's length in. Luz was mirroring her on the other side except that she was in the connected harness.</p><p>Luz realized she was going to have to improvise a bit more, it was windier up here than she had expected and she didn't want to try inching her way along to Amity lest the sail unfurl enough on her end to catch the wind. She loosened her grip on the lines and did her best to hook all of them with her one arm, using the other to pull out the plant glyphs she had folded into her pocket and quickly made some adjustments in her head.</p><p>The first glyph was intended to be used to push them even higher up using a single vine pillar, even better if they were able to do it with both of them in the harness. Since they didn't really know how tall Noceda's structure could grow and still keep upright, it was an extra measure really. The height they were at would have to do, Luz decided. She carefully knelt down to pin the glyph under her foot and with a few mental instructions, tapped it.</p><p>Thick vines devoid of thorns wormed their way out of the top of the wood and curled along the outside curve of the leaf-glider. They were holding it in place but weren't stiff enough to do so for long. Luz dropped her lines and made her way over to Amity quickly, but carefully. The leaf was too rigid to stay curled like it was without the lines pinning it closed and it was starting to slip out of the shape the vines were holding it in. Luz snaked her arms under Amity's from behind and pinned the second plant glyph to her front, tapping it. More vines burst into existence and simply wrapped around the two of them, firmly affixing Amity to Luz.</p><p>"Ready?" Luz called over the wind, it was picking up as the storm clouds rolled overhead. She was grinning like mad, questioning her sanity by this point, but pressing on anyways. Amity was clutching her hands to her chest, holding the vines running along her for dear life. "Just do it!" She called back, eyes closed tightly.</p><p>Luz made sure she was holding onto some of the vein-lines that connected her to the front edge of the leaf and she started to pull them, making the leaf's process of wiggling out of the vines holding it speed up dramatically.</p><p>In a few seconds, the lower edge of the sail had curled inward enough to let too much of the top half spill out of the vines' confines and it snapped open with all the fresh vitality expected of a giant leaf. The wind immediately blew it off the pillar, and the two of them with it.</p><p>With a piercing shriek from Amity ringing in her ears, they were airborne.</p><p>~*~</p><p>"Amity, you can open your eyes! This is <em>amazing</em>!"</p><p>Their glider had evened out rather quickly, being pushed along by the uncoordinated bursts from the growing storm clouds above. They hung below it in their harness, legs dangling, while Luz experimentally pulled on some of the vein-lines to get a feel for changing the shape of the leaf in flight. She shifted her weight and pulled on different lines until she could both feel and see them drifting towards the other side of the gorge.</p><p>"Wow... Hey I think I see Bonesborough!" Luz shouted, frantically trying to keep moving forward across the gorge but also see what was definitely becoming recognizable as the familiar city ahead and to their right. It would still take a day or so to walk the rest of the way, and that was <em>after </em>they found a place to wait out the coming storm. But it was nice to see it regardless.</p><p>Luz felt Amity jerk back and curl even tighter into herself. She had chanced a little peek and had apparently decided it was <em>not</em> for her. Luz wondered if she had any experience flying with a palisman. Her green hair was whipping around and Luz rested her head on top of Amity's to keep most of it out of her face.</p><p>It wasn't a completely peaceful ride, but it was working. They were well over the half-way point of the gorge and their gradual descent rate looked more than acceptable. <em>As fun as this is I shouldn't push our luck. Just keep a steady course and don't try riding any thermals.</em></p><p>Luz snickered mischievously and asked suddenly, "Het Amity, you know what a barrel roll is?"</p><p>The witch had a full-body spasm and shrieked, "Luz!" to which she snickered harder, trying to imagine how wide her golden eyes must be. With the rapid shift Amity's dangling legs knocked into one of Luz's and she wrapped them around, latching on.</p><p>They were coming up on the opposite cliffside now, and they were still a good fifteen or so feet above the ground. She started pulling a few of the lines of the leaf in turn experimentally, letting the air spill out of them and guiding them in short  jerky drops closer to the ground. This side of the gorge's terrain was starting to look a lot more like the forests she knew, and she was lightly bounding off the tops of the pine-like trees now with her not-captured foot.</p><p>"Okay Amity, prepare for a rocky landing!" Luz said gleefully as they floated right into the top-most part of a pine tree, which Luz kicked off of, but the stiff boughs still caught up in the lines and sail that was too low to keep out of tangle range. With a little "Eep!" from Amity they swung forward until they slowed to a stop, then swung backwards again into the bristly tree.</p><p>They were still hanging from the pine a good five feet in the air. Luz yanked on the dead lines a couple times and tried to wiggle up and down amidst Amity's protests, which was causing the snagged leaf to tear slowly. It eventually tore wide enough to deposit them rather gently onto the ground, although because Amity was firmly lashed to Luz's front and lower from settling in the harness, her feet touched down first and they quickly over balanced. They flopped onto their side unceremoniously, and Luz began to laugh hysterically.</p><p>"Thank you for flying Air-Luz!"</p><p>~ * ~</p><p>They had to extract a pocket knife from Luz's bag which was further extracted from Amity's much smaller bag to cut themselves out of the vine-root-vein mishmash of a harness.</p><p>Luz darted back towards the cliff edge, trying to pin-point where the others were. She wanted to make sure they made it across alright and wanted to help in any way she could.</p><p>She could see them nearing the cliffside, but she realized immediately that their angle was too low and they were going to dip well below the edge of the cliff before reaching it.</p><p><em>Okay, calm down, calm down.</em> She told herself firmly. <em>Work out the problem.</em></p><p>Thinking quickly, she lined up with where she thought they would be landing (if too low down the face of the cliff), and slapped a plant glyph over the edge of it. A full blown tree rocketed out of the dirt and fanned out wildly, providing a rough-shod runway. The tree immediately started to groan and Luz could see the roots struggling to keep it held at the unnatural horizontal angle. She would have dug around for another glyph to try and add more support but Blight and Noceda were already reaching the furthest edges of the branches. Since Blight was in front and lower like Amity was with her, the older witch half-hopped half-ran along the boughs and then trunk of the tree reminiscent of a sort of moon-landing (but with a lot of high-pitched swearing). They were slowing as they bounced past the tree's roots and skidded to a stop when the leafy part of their glider folded into the ground and yanked them back onto the dirt.</p><p>"HOLY SHIT." Noceda bellowed from underneath Blight, who was sawing away furiously with her claws at the vine harness. She cut through easily and wandered a few steps away, collapsing into a jittery pile of nerves.</p><p>"Hey guys! <em>Nice of you to drop in.</em>" Luz drawled playfully, framing the bottom of her face with a hand artistically. She absolutely relished the incredulous look on Noceda's face from her position on the ground. <em>That's right. Our insane plan worked and I'm cracking jokes about it!</em></p><p>"You!.. ugh... you made ours shittier." Blight looked like she was trying not to hurl and her voice was rough. Luz planted her hands on her hips indignantly. "I did not! They were exactly the same!"</p><p>It was at that precise moment that Luz noticed raindrops hitting the ground and sizzling; a testament to their sheer retained heat. She looked up and then immediately reversed, mentally slapping herself. She threw an arm over her head to protect her face and called over to Noceda. "Guys it's starting to rain!"</p><p>"What?" Noceda yelled back, much louder than she needed to be heard. She jerked in pain as a fat, boiling drop of greyish rain slammed into her arm and instantly broiled the skin there. "Shit! It's raining, we have to get to cover!"</p><p><em>That's what I said. </em>Luz dashed over and started cutting Noceda out of her harness as she started to flail around, likely for a fire glyph or something to get free. More drops of rain were coming down and the ones that hit her was making it hard for Luz to focus on cutting the vines rather than the older teen.</p><p>She sawed through the last one she needed for Noceda to throw the rest of the harness off and it looked like she was going to make a grab for the leaf to throw over them as a tarp but they were suddenly out of the rain. Luz looked up to see a pink force shield over them, held up by a somewhat ill-looking Blight.</p><p>Luz flinched hard and looked towards the trees where Amity had been when she dashed off. "We need to get to Amity!" She practically yelled. Noceda was prodding at her ear and didn't respond, but Blight replied instead.</p><p>"Don't worry, she should know this one." Although she too was peering towards the trees, still holding her stomach and looking a bit queasy.</p><p>Sure enough, a moment later Luz saw a pink glow through the trees and made out the form of Amity running towards them, shield over-head. When she made it over, panting a bit from the run, she took a moment to look everyone over and sagged in relief to see they were all relatively fine.</p><p>"So.. we made it!" Luz cheered, feeling absolutely perfect now that she knew Amity was safe and they were all together again. Noceda picked herself up off the ground and asked way too loudly, "Whazzat?"</p><p>"What's wrong with her?" Amity asked from where she was standing, not getting any closer lest the shields touched and violently react. Luz got right up in her face and asked, "Noceda, can you hear me?"</p><p>The older teen squinted at her and yelled back, "I can't hear you." She pointed an accusing finger at Blight. "She was fucking screaming the whole way."</p><p>Everyone turned to Blight who's face lit up brighter than her force shield.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>They managed to find a group of sturdy red pines that were close enough together to deflect most of the rain. Neither witch wanted to hold their shield longer than absolutely necessary. The rain was coming down steadily now though the wind wasn't very strong yet, but they would need to find more secure shelter if they didn't want to test the witches' endurance by holding a force shield for the rest of the day.</p><p>"So we are not far from uh," trailing a finger along her map, Noceda pin-pointed their approximate location. "Collagentown. Huh, I think I ran some errands for Eda there once upon a time..." She then rolled her jaw and roughly prodded at an ear with her knuckle again and growled over the ringing, "dammit Blight..."</p><p>Amity tilted her head away slightly to hide her smirk. She had been terrified of being up so high on their untested constructs but at least she didn't <em>make a scene</em>. She could almost hear her mother's voice and she shook her head vigorously to dislodge the thought before she could dwell on it.</p><p>"Yeah well, unlike you I'm not used to dying, so bite me." Blight muttered under her breath. Amity's eyes widened and she cocked an ear in the other witch's direction, but before she could wonder what that was about Luz bounced over to her, looking her up and down.</p><p>"Hey so let's see here, anything broken? Scrapes? Burns? Anything?" Luz was poking and prodding and making an adorable nuisance of herself. Amity scanned her over as well, seeing nothing particularly wrong with the human other than a few marks where the rain had burned her. She felt a little twinge on her own forehead, reaching up to feel around a distinctive burn where one of the first drops had hit her square above the brow.</p><p>Luz followed the movement and spied the red mark, catching her eyes again and asking, "Want me to use a glyph?"</p><p>"It's fine," She shook her head. "It doesn't hurt that much." Luz pursed her lips in thought and blinked. Then she stretched up and gave the mark a little kiss. Amity.exe stopped working.</p><p>"Any better?" Luz grinned playfully, and Amity slowly nodded automatically. Noceda came to her rescue when she called everyone's attention to the map.</p><p>"Alright, we really should try to make a bee-line for Collagentown. We don't know what it's going to look like in there, but we don't know how bad the storm is going to get so we don't have a lot of choice here." She said, voice still a bit louder than it normally would be. She waved vaguely at Blight and Amity.</p><p>"I suggest we wait for a little while to see if the rain lets up a bit, but we'll probably need you guys to do your shield thing while we make a run for it. We're probably about half an hour away at a jog."</p><p>Amity turned to Luz who was shaking with barely-restrained excitement. Her fists were clasped tightly and she was rocking side-to-side. She looked like she was about ready to burst.</p><p>Partly out of concern and partly out of curiosity, Amity reached out towards her and gently asked, "Luz?" The girl was gnawing her lip when she looked up at her, then her eyes darted over to lock with Noceda's. Even the older human seemed to furrow her brows in confusion, but after a few seconds dawning realization struck her face and she blurted out "Don't say-" while holding up a hand as if that would stop it;</p><p>"Looks like we're going to <em>College</em>!"</p><p>Noceda groaned loudly.</p><p> </p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Home, Sweet Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Huge thanks to those of you who leave kudos and comments, it's really great to see that other people are enjoying this :) I loooooove reading comments!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They waited for probably the better part of an hour before deciding that the rain wasn't going to get significantly more accommodating to travel in. For the first little bit of the dash to Collagentown, Amity and Luz had jogged arm-in-arm under her bright pink force shield while the two older teens ran behind them. After a solid twenty minutes of this though, Luz could tell Amity was flagging not just from the running or holding up her shield but from the collective strain of the long day. And it was only mid-afternoon.</p><p>Amity was sweating pretty hard, even for the cloying temperature that came with the rain and her jog was becoming less and less coordinated. Luz risked a glance back at Noceda and Blight, just about ready to ask them for a break under a tree or something. It seemed to be something Noceda had been waiting for because Luz heard her speak to Blight although she couldn't make out what she said.</p><p>Luz could hear the two older teens speed up behind them and both she and Amity looked up when Blight's shield, larger with more magic fed into it now, overshadowed Amity's and Noceda was tapping her on the shoulder.</p><p>"Kid, you can drop that. We're not too far now." She said over the rain. Luz felt a pang of sympathy as Amity immediately dropped her arm and shield, gasping. The four of them slowed to a brisk walking pace and Amity was glancing guiltily at Blight, who didn't acknowledge the looks.</p><p>"Sorry..." Amity's voice was nearly drowned out by the rain but she was still linked with Luz's arm so she could hear the young witch. She looked sheepishly back over her shoulder to Blight, who was fast-walking right behind Luz.</p><p>Luz didn't hear her say anything back but she could imagine the careless shrug. Amity didn't look any less ashamed and Luz wanted to say something to her but she didn't think it would be appreciated with the older teens right on their heels.</p><p>With the slower pace it was another twenty or so minutes before they finally came upon the small town. The big welcome sign on the side of the dirt road read, "Welco-", and "Coll-" though most of it was burned, along with whatever pithy slogan had been written under the bigger letters.</p><p>As they walked they had to steer around the increasingly large puddles and pools of scalding water, and Luz was relying more on Amity for the guidance since she was too busy taking in the sights of the small town; It seemed like it had been a quaint place to live before it's abandonment.</p><p>"Wow, that one's completely collapsed, look." Luz pointed out what appeared to be a small store of some kind, and the two large curving bones that had been part of the roof had fallen over and crushed the entire storefront. Glass and debris littered the ground around it, though it wasn't very different from most of the street.</p><p>"See that one?" Amity got her attention and pointed out towards a tall house with a carved wooden sign depicting a demon and a witch twirling gracefully on the front. "I took dance lessons there when I was young."</p><p>Luz bounced a bit with the information and turned excitedly to Noceda. "Think we could stay there for the night?" She polished off the Puppy Eyes because this was <em>Amity's old dance class</em>, and there was no way she could live with herself if she didn't get to go inside and check it out. Noceda seemed to give it an appraising look, but then shook her head.</p><p>"Not a good idea. The door's been broken open, see? We're going to want something boarded up, smaller chance anything is in there."</p><p>Luz pouted, but turned back and didn't argue the point. The older teens knew more about this stuff than she did, though she was still disappointed. Amity gave her a little nudge and said, "I can tell you about it when we're set up for the night." That put a smile back on Luz's face, and she resumed her bouncy walk with renewed vigour.</p><p>When they came upon a somewhat fancier building that was difficult to determine as a store or a home, Noceda stopped them to inspect it closer. With the boarded up windows and door that was nailed closed, it seemed to fit the bill. Luz was surprised when Noceda approached it and simply scratched a fire glyph into the door using a small stone figure that had been perched on the banister. She tapped it and for a couple minutes they waited under the large awning while the fire ate through the door and then fizzled out when Noceda willed the spell to stop.</p><p>Inside was actually quite cozy! Luz relished the sudden free movement being inside allowed her after being confined to force shields for so long.</p><p>"This place is adorable! Look at this lamp! It's so underwhelming and boring~!" She poked at the lamp and many other things that were displayed on tables and in cabinets. It seemed like an antiques shop or something, and there was even an upstairs!</p><p>Blight collapsed into a fancy-looking, if dusty, antique chair with elaborately-stitched patterns in the upholstery and antlers sticking out of the back posts. She looked a bit ashen, and Luz figured that between saving her from the deer-monster this morning (it seemed like it was so long ago..) and holding a large shield for probably over a combined hour she was reaching some kind of limit on magic for the day. Luz debated with herself for a moment before deciding to risk a little, "Thank you Blight! For the, uh, shield help."</p><p>The witch lifted a few fingers off of the arm-rest in the bare minimum definition of a response, and Luz turned to Amity who was shifting her weight from one sore foot to the other as she took in the new area. "Wanna grab a seat and rest?" She asked her. Amity sent her a little grateful smile and nodded.</p><p>Noceda started shuffling around the room, though it kinda looked to Luz like it was more out of curiosity than the cautious once-over she tended to give their resting spots. She started poking her way up the stairs and Luz could hear her slow steps creaking through the floor. Suddenly there was a yelp and a thud, and Blight was whipping past her and Amity before either could react and was up the stairs in a heartbeat.</p><p>With a gasp, Luz followed immediately and started making her way up the stairs, but the paused when she heard... Laughing?</p><p>When she got to the top they were in a short hallway with a small closet door and a second larger one at the end that had a sign on it saying, "Employees Only". Noceda was hanging upside-down, her boot wrapped up in a rope that hung directly from the ceiling and her jacket hanging off of her dangling arms. Blight had her back against the wall, cackling and smacking it with a fist in sheer mirth.</p><p>Luz choked back a laugh at the other human's severely unimpressed look, though she was slowly turning red with embarrassment. Amity peeked out timidly from behind Luz and her eyes widened at the strange sight. That did it, and Luz burst out laughing.</p><p>"Yeah, yeah, alright. Someone get me down." Noceda muttered.</p><p>Trying to respond around her laughter was kind of difficult, but Luz managed to get out, "I'll go get my pocket knife." Blight stopped her with a waving motion of her hand and she sauntered up to the human and looked down at her smugly. Noceda glared up at her.</p><p>"I get one point; because that's a really obvious trap. And two for getting you down." Blight grinned at her. Luz tilted her head and couldn't help but wonder, <em>what's this about points now?</em></p><p>Noceda groaned and looked away and that seemed to be all the acquiescence Blight needed. She bent over and slipped an arm behind Noceda's shoulders and with a grunt of effort, lifted her up so that she was hanging like the letter J instead of straight down. Then she simply drew a spellcircle in the air and a small bit of fire shot out and burnt through the rope somewhere close to the ceiling. With a startled noise from her, Noceda's legs dropped suddenly and her boots landed heavily on the wooden floor. Blight held her upper body from falling and merely pushed her upright so she was standing again, facing the Employees Only door and looking a bit rumpled.</p><p>When she turned around to her still snickering audience she shot a look over at Luz and said, "Beat it." Amity was already quickly retreating down the stairs and Luz followed with a little, "Sorry!"</p><p>As she made her escape she could hear Noceda say, "All this rough living is gonna make you beefy."</p><p>Judging from the irritated raspberry that followed Blight's response of, "Damn straight", Luz guessed that it wasn't the reaction Noceda had been aiming for.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>The storm outside was in full tilt with scalding water hammering down. They couldn't see outside because of the boarded windows, but they could sure hear it. Despite it being only late afternoon, everyone was quite tired from the strenuous day.</p><p>Blight had gone and claimed most of an antique couch that kind of looked to Luz like Victorian-style, but with a decidedly gothic motif. The older witch had been passed out since having something to eat and although Luz and Amity were trying to be quiet, Noceda kept insisting that she'd sleep through anything when she was that exhausted. The older human had spent much of the last few hours picking over the whole store and taking anything useful enough to be worth the space, then taking up the spot left on Blight's couch to 'rest her eyes, I'm not sleeping'.</p><p>By the time it was good and dark Luz and Amity had explored the entire store, had dinner, chatted about Amity's dance classes, debated the merits of hocus-focusing, and currently had two antique chairs squashed beside each other while they read Luz's copy of The Good Witch Azura 5 by glyph light.</p><p>"Caution, Hecate! For whilst we traverse this fiendish Bog of Everlasting Torment we shall encounter some of our greatest perils yet! But fear not, for I, The Great Witch Azura, shall be with thou for this harrowing journey, and so NOTHING may bringest thou to harm!"</p><p>Luz was rather proud of her performance, actually. She glanced at Amity to see what her reaction was to her dramatic reading with full action accompaniment, though she found the witch leaning quite far back in her fancy chair with a fond but somewhat exasperated look. Luz shrunk back sheepishly. "Sorry.. I was doing it again wasn't I?"</p><p>"Mhm." Amity confirmed. "It'll be funny up until you actually elbow me in the face. Then I'm going to have to put you in time-out." She teased, then cozied back in to read the next part.</p><p> </p><p>On the other side of the store, Blight growled grumpily at having been pried from sleep thanks to Luz's energetic theatrics. Noceda looked up from her new copy of Mystical Artefacts of the Left Hand that she had purchased from the store at a hundred-percent discount and offered a little 'hey'. The witch breathed in deeply and held a hand up to block out Noceda's glyph light, shooting it an irritated look and then throwing an arm over her face.</p><p>"I still feel like shit." Blight said. Noceda shrugged and closed her book, waving the little ball of light further away. "Then go back to sleep."</p><p>Neither said anything for a little while and Blight groggily sat up and took off her jacket, laid it over the back of the couch and stretched. She rolled her head and shoulders to work out the kinks from the angle she'd been sleeping at and promptly reversed in place, dropping her head in Noceda's lap and challenging her to object with her eyes. Noceda lifted an eyebrow and glanced across the room to the two younger teens, then back at her. Blight narrowed her eyes. Noceda shrugged again, relenting their wordless exchange and rested an arm across Blight's middle. <em>They'll probably figure it out soon enough if they haven't already.</em></p><p>"So little-Luz is pretty set on finding Willow." Noceda closed her eyes and lay her head back. "She thinks there's a chance the Willow from her dimension will be with her."</p><p>"And... this bothers you." It wasn't said as a question, although it was.</p><p>"I was too chickenshit to say goodbye ya know." Noceda sighed.</p><p>She had told Blight about some of her feelings regarding leaving her friends behind. She was so desperate to distance herself from what happened at the Owl House.. the thought that some or all of her friends could be dead left a pit in her stomach and she was very conflicted about wanting to know for sure. Coming back all this way for Eda's research was one thing, although continuing on to Bonesborough and checking in was an entirely different matter that she had been avoiding thinking about. With Luz determined to check for their friend though, she felt there would be no choice but to go with her. <em>With that many people in one place there's no telling how messed up the city is now, </em>she thought with a sinking feeling.</p><p>"Blight... What if she's, you know. Gone." Saying it out loud made her heart twist painfully in her chest. Blight tapped her on the upper arm as if to emphasize her next words.</p><p>"We won't know until we see for ourselves, Noceda. Then we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Willow is powerful, and resourceful, you know that. She's probably right where you left her." Blight wasn't usually the one giving her the optimistic side of things, but her words had a sort of finality to them that was comforting.</p><p>"I hope you're right." She relaxed a bit and hoped she would be able to sleep. With each night that they got closer, it was getting a little bit harder.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Consciousness clawed at her from the soothing abyss of sleep.</p><p>Amity struggled to sit up in her sleeping bag, someone was yelling, no, multiple people were yelling. She wiped clumsily at her eyes to try and clear her sight faster.</p><p>Glyph lights blinked into blinding existence and she had to block them out. Someone-, no that was Luz, Luz was calling her and holding her by the shoulders.</p><p>"IT'S NOT YOUR HOUSE!"</p><p>Who's not what now? Amity squinted and tried to make any sense of the cacophony going on in the room. She could see Luz moving around, oh she shoved one of their sleeping bags in her arms.</p><p>"IT'S NOT YOUR HOUSE!" There was a witch, well, Amity wasn't sure if it was a witch actually. He was flailing and shouting, arms too long, neck too long, what was wrong with him..?</p><p>"Amity we gotta go, where are your shoes?" Luz was asking her... shoes? Oh, put on your shoes.</p><p>The world snapped into focus.</p><p>Beside her Luz had hastily grabbed everything of theirs and Amity quickly slipped into her black shoes, having to twist and turn to see them under the bulky mass of sleeping bag and pillows she had in her arms. She looked over to see Noceda clutching her head like she was in pain and had an arm out keeping Blight back from the stranger. There was someone else in the room with them! He was screaming at the top of his lungs in a high reedy voice.</p><p>"IT'S NOT YOUR HOUSE! IT'S NOT YOUR HOUSE! IT'S NOT-"</p><p>"Alright! Holy shit we're going, okay! Blight, just- Blight go, just go!" Noceda was corralling the witch towards the door, her backpack hanging from her arm. Blight's eyes were furious and she was baring her teeth, movements jerky and unpredictable.</p><p>Amity turned to Luz who started pulling her towards the door, though she was nervous to get any closer to the wild-eyed older witch. Then Noceda and Blight were out the door.</p><p>"Amity it's still raining so, uh, brace yourself I guess!" Luz told her, and they stumbled across the front threshold and were outside.</p><p>The burning rain immediately punished every part of her it touched while she ran wildly with Luz. It seemed like forever in a second, but they were under a leaky awning now. Despite the heat of her burns she shivered. Across the street the witch was still hollering, standing in the pouring rain not far from the building he had chased them out of.</p><p>"Amity, they're over there." Luz pointed down the street, several houses down where a pink force shield lit up the darkness around it. Amity quickly shuffled around the sleeping bag and pillows enough to draw a spellcircle and she rose her little shield above herself, then fed it more magic so Luz could get under too. Taking a deep breath in preparation, she nodded and Luz took that as their cue to dash back out into the rain towards the others. Every step brought a fresh wave of stinging pain from the heated puddles splashing against her ankles and burning into her shoes.</p><p>"Just our fucking luck we pick the one occupied house in the whole damn town. I bet that's not even his!" Noceda spat angrily, then quickly assessed her and Luz and spun to look further down the street. Blight was turned away from them, but Amity could feel the rolling waves of rage. The older witch looked about ready to kill and it was pushing every instinct in her to flight mode.</p><p>"Hey, Amity!" She whipped her head around to face Luz. The human had so many things in her arms it was a mystery how she was managing it. "We're okay. You're okay. We just need to find a different place to spend the night." The pink light of the shield was reflecting in her eyes.</p><p>A long moment later, Noceda pointed them towards a fairly sturdy-looking building several more houses down the street. Amity looked the way they had run from, she couldn't hear or see the crazy witch anymore.</p><p>"Alright, let's go. Watch for puddles." Noceda called out, then she and Blight started making their way towards the other building. Luz moved to the edge of the shield and looked back at her encouragingly. She nodded back.</p><p>They darted out after the older teens and made it to the building that Noceda was kicking the boarded up front door of. She wasn't doing it quickly enough and Blight shoved her and nearly took the thing off its hinges with the force of her kick. She heard a muttered, "alright." from Noceda and they all quickly filed in.</p><p>Inside, she could hear all four of them breathing heavily. The rain was pounding and hissing on the roof. Luz was gently tugging at her wrist; she was still holding up her shield. She dismissed it and the room went dark.</p><p>"Luz get us some light, will you." She heard Noceda say as she went over to the door and shoved it back into place, pinning it with a chair so it wouldn't fly open with the wind. It was much quieter now with it closed.</p><p>Luz was lighting several glyph lights and Amity took a look around, still feeling somewhat shell-shocked. They seemed to be in an office, and judging by the pictures of little witchlings, cutsie graphics of animals and infographics on food and the body, it appeared to be a pediatrician's clinic.</p><p>Amity swallowed hard and let herself be guided towards the far wall by the hand. She sat down in one of the worn green chairs and just breathed for a while. She tilted her face a bit to see Luz draped heavily in the chair next to her, head back against the wall and breathing deeply with a pinched look. The glyph lights around them were jittering as they floated, and were just a bit too bright.</p><p>"Luz." Amity said gently, laying her free hand on the human's arm. Luz took one deep breath and let her head flop slowly to the side to look at her. "Hey Amity." She attempted a little smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.</p><p>Amity could feel her heart pounding in her chest, the effects of the adrenaline from the whole disaster not letting up yet. And she couldn't quite shake the urge to get up and move away. She really didn't want to, but her eyes drifted over to the older teens on the other side of the waiting room.</p><p>She could see the two of them, wreathed in bands of light and shadow from the attending glyph lights floating overhead. Blight was sitting on the floor pressed up against the legs of a chair and was gasping for breath, one hand buried deep in her green hair and the other weakly shoving at Noceda. It was difficult to tell if the human's position would be called sitting or kneeling, but she was trying to worm her way closer with a healing glyph clutched in her hand. She was attempting to get Blight to do a healing session, and the witch seemed to be protesting. Noceda was insisting things like, "You're not gonna hurt me. Let me do it."</p><p>Amity had to look away. The human was ridiculously brave, or stupid, to be so close to her. She wanted to get up. She needed to move away.</p><p>"Luz, can we go into another room please?" Her voice was so small. She felt pathetic. She was squeezing her eyes closed so tightly that it was making impossible colours dance behind her lids. The thought of <em>'this could start happening to you' </em>was snaking between any attempt to calm down.</p><p>She distantly felt Luz helping her up and moving them. She was holding Luz's arm so tightly it must have been uncomfortable, but she trooped them along into one of the of exam rooms lined up neatly in the corridor.</p><p>Feeling a bit more secure in the smaller space, she glanced around the room, holding herself while Luz closed the door and started puttering around.</p><p>There was a low check-up table where little witchlings and demonlings would sit while they were being looked over by a doctor. A couple of old carpets lay on the floor and toys were shoved in a corner; the bin they probably would have been kept in was tipped over. There was a little kid's tent, and that seemed to be Luz's focus as she rolled the sleeping bag she had out so it was part-way inside. Amity wasn't sure where the sleeping bag and pillows she had went, probably lying on the floor in the waiting room. Luz had an arm around her and was guiding her over to the tent-bag combo.</p><p>"Here, crawl inside." Luz said gently. Without really thinking about it she kicked off her shoes and obeyed, pushing aside the little tent flap to awkwardly slip into the bag. From outside she heard Luz say something like, "I'll be back in one second."</p><p>The bag was a bit damp on the outside but it was still warm and dry inside. Amity slowly tilted her head to take in the various colours that the glyph lights were casting from outside the translucent tent walls. She heard the door close again and some shuffling, then Luz kneeled by the tent door and pulled back the flap with their little pillows in her arm.</p><p>"Can I come in?" She smiled gently. Amity just nodded. She felt like she was so far away.</p><p>Luz wiggled in beside her, shaking the little tent until she was settled in the sleeping bag too. She slipped a pillow in place and offered Amity the other one.</p><p>"I don't want to do this anymore." Amity whispered. Luz seemed to hesitate for a moment and then started to pull away, and Amity jolted realizing how that sounded and she grabbed for the other girl immediately.</p><p>"I don't mean you. Sorry, Luz, I-" She stuttered, feeling her throat get awfully tight and her eyes burn. Luz relaxed completely and snuggled in close to hook an arm around her middle. It was comforting beyond words, though that never stopped the human.</p><p>"It's alright Amity." She lay her head on her little pillow, prompting Amity to do the same. "It's alright to be scared. It isn't something to be ashamed of." Her hazel eyes were so kind. But that was the opposite of what had been drilled in to Amity since she was old enough to feel shame. Shame was weakness; Fear was weakness.</p><p>It took her a little while to gather her thoughts. She was terrified of this place. It looked a lot like the Isles but it didn't <em>feel</em> the same at all.</p><p>"Luz... I'm ..." She struggled to get the words out, "I am afraid." Somewhere in the back of her mind she could feel the weight of expected disapproval, but... that wasn't Luz. Luz wouldn't think poorly of her just because she <em>had</em> feelings. She knew this, but it was just so hard to say it.</p><p>Luz stayed quiet, letting Amity sort her thoughts out until she felt ready to speak. <em>It's probably really difficult for her though, </em>and the thought almost made her feel something akin to a smile, but it wasn't quite enough.</p><p>"I'm afraid that we're never going to find our way home." There. She said it. She didn't have faith, couldn't see the bright side. Failed to believe anyone would save them, including themselves. "...and I'm afraid... that even if we do," her throat closed up and she shuddered, "We might not be the same anymore."</p><p>She didn't dare say another word, she knew it would make her start to cry. She could feel herself shivering, and she cautiously let her hand drift over to rest against Luz's collarbone, hoping desperately that it wasn't too much. But the human had always been touchy and affectionate, she took it as full permission to snuggle them up tight enough to almost stifle her shivers.</p><p>She waited a bit longer, possibly to see if Amity had any other words left, but when she didn't speak Luz pressed their foreheads together and made sure she had Amity's full attention before she spoke finally.</p><p>"Everything we go through here, We are going to do it together. I don't know what kind of trials we're going to have to face, but we <em>are</em> going to get home and we <em>are</em> going to be alright." The determined tone reminded her of when Luz was standing up to Boscha, ready to forfeit so that her friends wouldn't have to suffer. She could see the happy ending, no matter what stood between it and her.</p><p>"You and me, we <em>are</em> going to be different when we get through this. But that's life, right? We'll come out stronger if we can and... well if we don't..." She looked away with a tinge of red on her cheeks before she turned back, looking more assured than ever. "We'll still have each other, okay?"</p><p>Well, dang it, how was that <em>not</em> supposed to make her cry. She sniffled and felt a few tears escape and run along her nose to land on her pillow. Luz held her and murmured reassurances until she almost felt like things might be okay after all.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Amity was nearly asleep when she thought she heard a voice speaking. Pulling back into wakefulness was almost painful but she was alert quickly. <em>That's Noceda's voice.</em></p><p>Her voice was getting louder and angrier, and Amity opened her eyes to see Luz's face flushed with anger. There was a pounding sound, and Amity could just barely make out the shouting.</p><p>"Stay here, okay?" Luz said while she squirmed out of the bag and the tent, and she was putting on her shoes before Amity could really react.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p>Luz was <em>pissed</em>. She snatched a few glyphs she had done up and left out within easy reach and she practically threw open their door to go marching out into the short corridor. It lined up with the front door so she could immediately see Noceda who was pressing up against it, one hand grasping at her head, and shouting at the furious witch outside.</p><p>"It's not your house! It's not your house!" She could hear him, muffled by the door.</p><p>"Fuck off, we already left the other one to you! Augh.." Noceda jerked when the door was struck again from the outside, but by the way she was clutching at her head Luz didn't think it was from the impact.</p><p>"Is he hurting you somehow?" Luz threw her weight against the door, looking up at the older teen with great concern. She shook her head, like she was trying to throw something off.</p><p>"I don't know what it is! I keep, I feel like I'm-" Noceda's eyes were shut tight and she was gritting her teeth like she was in pain. She managed to wrench an eye open and look at Luz. The confusion on the older teen's face was immense; whatever was affecting her so badly wasn't affecting Luz at all.</p><p>"Let me see if I can chase him away, I have glyphs here." Luz said quickly, repositioning her arms to hold the door but ready to push Noceda away and throw it open.</p><p>"Hell no, we have no idea-" She was cut off when the door was pounded so hard it felt like the witch was ramming it somehow, each impact with the loudest shouting yet. "IT'S. NOT. YOUR. <strong>HOUSE.</strong>" Noceda suddenly stumbled back, both arms flying around her middle like she'd been kicked. She was gasping for breath.</p><p>Luz was about to use the retreat to open the door and confront the insane stranger but she noticed Blight coming towards her with frightening purpose. She barely got out of the way when the wild-eyed witch threw open the door and shoved both herself and the stranger out into the rain.</p><p>"Ahh, shit. Blight. <em>Blight!</em>" Noceda was reaching out and struggling behind her and Luz was at a loss.</p><p>"<strong>GO.</strong> DO YOU WANT TO DIE?" Blight was screaming, ignoring the hot rain that was soaking her hair and clothes, steam wafting off of her bare shoulders. Some of the glyph lights flew out into the rain and Luz could see the stranger now.</p><p>He was a middle-aged witch, or he had been. His skin was gaunt and jagged shards of <em>something</em> were protruding from his back, shoulders and arms that were far too long to be normal. His head was held forward on a neck that was grotesquely stretched out and he swayed while he paced erratically. His pupils were just tiny specks in the whites of his eyes and his mouth hung open, his jaw didn't move much when he shouted again, sounding desperate.</p><p>"IT'S NOT YOUR HOUSE!" This time he didn't stop, each time he shrieked the words he seemed more and more urgent. He was practically sobbing between screams.</p><p>Noceda looked like she desperately wanted to dart past Luz and grab Blight, but she doubled over with the shouting. Luz wanted to ask her what to do, though she was shaking so bad she wasn't even sure if she was holding her glyphs anymore. Blight was murmuring, and Luz could make out the words, "-go away go away no no no-". The situation was so beyond Luz and she looked out helplessly as Blight glanced back at the two of them, her face alive with despair.</p><p>"I'm sorry.." Her words were barely a whisper but sounded so much louder than the rain.</p><p>Luz jerked back from the door and clapped her hands over her mouth as Blight turned towards the stranger and shot forward, raking her claws across the other witch's throat.</p><p>He stumbled back several paces, gurgling. "Ug's.. Nhaut.. blur..-"</p><p>Blight closed the gap and kicked him so hard in the middle that the snap Luz heard could have only been his spine.</p><p>Luz felt like she was floating backwards. Her glyph lights thrashed and winked out, one by one and it was disorientating. She heard a choking gasp behind her and she turned slowly, seeing Amity illuminated in the corridor by a single wavering light ball. Her hands were covering her lower face and tears were leaking out of her eyes, wide with terror. Luz felt her heart break a little.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Noceda shuffled forward, passing the dead-silent Luz and slowly stepped out the door. The rain stung everywhere it hit. She made a wide circle around Blight and approached her from in front. She didn't say anything; she didn't dare. She stood in front of the silent witch, knowing that the pain and resignation on her face was obvious although she tried to keep it under control. It was hard not to sob, or flinch, or cower.</p><p>Blight had been staring at the broken body on the ground, barely visible through the rain with only a scrap of moonlight to prove it was even there. Her eyes were wide and unseeing, and her breathing deep. Her bloodied hand was twitching, her entire body tense and ready to kill again.</p><p>The scalding shower was making Noceda's body betray her attempted stoicism, trying to convulse from the sensory overload.  She refused to break eye contact though.</p><p>Dark golden eyes drifted to her face. She could hear Blight's breathing become unsteady. Noceda was dimly aware of the agonized little whine at the back of her throat and did her best to suppress it. Just pain.</p><p>
  <em>Come back. Blight, come back.</em>
</p><p>The witch was slowly regaining control of her awareness and she blinked rapidly, finally seeing Noceda in front of her. She was losing her iron-like rigidity and starting to shake, likely realizing how painful it was for both of them to continue being outside.</p><p>Blight's lips parted and she sucked in a little gasp. She reached out and fisted her bloodied hand in Noceda's jacket, jerkily stepping back and pulling her along. Noceda let out her breath in a shattered whoosh and gulped air greedily, falling into step with Blight as they walked back towards the door of the clinic and inside.</p><p>They immediately collapsed against the front counter and Blight buried her face in Noceda's jacket. She tensed suddenly and Noceda looked up to see Amity go sprinting out the door, shield overhead and Luz calling out after her. Luz wasn't far behind but she stopped at the door; she'd brought out her witch's cloak and was arranging it over herself to block the rain. She looked over at Noceda but didn't say anything, then darted out into the night.</p><p>Blight burrowed tighter into her, and Noceda answered with a gentle but firm increase of pressure with her arms. She was shivering. Neither of them spoke for a while until the witch asked in a small voice, "She saw?"</p><p>Noceda knew who she meant and pressed in to the thick, wet hair against her jaw and throat. She wanted to rub a thumb along the skin of the witch's bare shoulder but it was definitely over-sensitive from the punishing rain. She nodded, just slightly, knowing Blight would feel it. She shuddered in her arms and swore softly.</p><p>"I'm sorry." Shame laced her quiet voice. Noceda buried her nose into the green tresses to take a deep breath and then shushed her. "It's not your fault, Blight."</p><p>Noceda grasped for the words for a few seconds. "... I'm sorry though." She murmured, and she felt Blight flinch just a little. She didn't have to say anything for Noceda to know what the question was. "I couldn't get to you. I don't know why, but that guy's screaming kept... reminding me of that night."</p><p>Blight reluctantly extracted herself somewhat so she could look Noceda in the eyes. Her sympathetic look morphed into dismay though. "Oh titan, your face..."</p><p>She couldn't see it herself obviously, but judging from the angry rawness she could feel on her hands and wrists the rain had done a number up top too. She could imagine how red her eyes were from the ash and heat of the water dripping into them, and she knew her forehead was blistering badly.</p><p>Blight was shifting a bit, and Noceda could feel a hand reaching into the inside breast pocket of her damp jacket. Blight pulled out several pieces of glyph papers and carefully looked through them until she found one she wanted. She moved to press the healing glyph against her burning forehead but Noceda just reached up and plucked it from the witch's fingers.</p><p>"You first." She said softly. Blight had the faintest hint of stubbornness flash in her eyes, but then immediately relented. Their faces were so close together that their noses were almost brushing.</p><p>Noceda gently placed the glyph against Blight's forehead. Her aim wasn't the redness of her pale skin; it was for something much, much deeper. She locked her gaze on those golden eyes so the witch would know how serious her next words were.</p><p>"... I'm taking away your points for all this." The corner of her mouth quirked just a fraction. Blight blinked a couple times and then the sound she made was more of a sob than a laugh, but it was good enough for Noceda. She closed her eyes and made the connection to the little piece of paper; <em>Take away the wrong. Put back what is hers, </em>Noceda thought at it.</p><p>The glyph glowed a soft, pale gold they both had come to know too well by now. The paper folded into itself and sunk into Blight's skin with a small wave effect, lighting up her features for a few seconds. Her eyes were closed and Noceda could feel her tense up, her lips parted while the magic danced around in her head. Noceda wrapped both arms around her shoulders and drew her in close, breathing in her scent while the witch rode out the effects of the spell.</p><p>After a few tense minutes she relaxed. Noceda could feel her eyelashes fluttering against her throat while the witch came back to herself. Blight took a moment to assess her wrapped up state and she was gently shifting her arms that were trapped between them.</p><p>"'M gonna do yours now." She murmured. Noceda gripped her a little tighter and pursed her lips almost childishly. "Dun wanna."</p><p>She could feel the little grin, and smiled as she felt Blight work her arms up between them. She whined a little though when Blight pulled her head back so her hands were sort of free, looking like a pointy flower trapped between their chins. She wiggled a claw expectantly, and Noceda sighed as she rolled her head to the side to peer at the scattered glyphs around them. She reluctantly let go with one arm and picked up a few of the small slips of paper, scanning them quickly and then letting loose all but one. She placed the glyph into Blight's waiting fingers and then wrapped her back up again.</p><p>"So difficult." The witch murmured. She kept wiggling her hands up until she could reach their foreheads, and Noceda kissed one of her knuckles. Not dissuaded, she pinned the glyph to her forehead with a finger and tapped it with another. Noceda could feel the magic seek out the burns on her skin and cooled them off, mending the skin to its normal tan complexion. She hadn't noticed how sore and irritated her eyes were until they too were soothed back to normal.</p><p>Blight wiggled her arms back down so she could look at her work. Noceda offered her a little half-smile. The witch seemed to accept the results and then pulled back further. Hey eyes dropped and she said quietly, "You should go find them. I know you're worried."</p><p>It was true. Not knowing where Luz and Amity were was gnawing at the back of her mind, but she didn't want to leave. Blight looked so tiny and vulnerable right now, scooped up in her arms. After a moment Noceda tilted her head to catch her eyes and asked, "You sure?"</p><p>She nodded, and gently started to push her away. They both knew there was a good chance the two younger teens wouldn't even travel with them after this. But Noceda needed to know they were okay, or as okay as they could be on the Isle. She breathed in the witch's scent one last time and reluctantly unwrapped her arms, bringing herself to her feet and just feeling so, so heavy. She looked down at Blight as she curled inward and kept her eyes focused somewhere across the room. Noceda reached up to pull off her damp beanie and she plopped it on Blight's head. The witch reached up and lay a hand over it, then gently pushed at Noceda's shin with the other, urging her to go.</p><p>"I'll be back." Noceda promised.</p><p>"I know." Blight whispered back.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>The rain was letting up finally, allowing the moon to illuminate the walkways and buildings of the small town enough to see. Other than the dwindling hissing of the rain, it was silent. Except for one large figure slowly making its way along the town's main street. The only sound of its approach was an eerie alternating between a hoof-clack and a heavy dragging sound. That is, until it spoke...</p><p><em>"It's... Not... Your... House..."  </em>The deep voice rumbled like thunder.</p><p>
  
</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Amity was shuddering in her arms. Luz had managed to follow the bouncing pink light from her shield and followed her into the building she'd fled to. The door was heavy and barely hanging on to the door frame but she pushed past it like she was used to it. Luz supposed she was... this building was the dance studio she'd pointed out earlier.</p><p>Seeing the deranged old witch had frightened her badly, but seeing Blight murder him with her bare hands... She had been almost inconsolable when Luz found her up the stairs, huddling in the corner of a room lined with mirrors and ballet barres. She'd been crying so hard she had exhausted herself, all she could do now was shiver. It wasn't like Luz was completely unaffected, she <em>knew</em> something was wrong with Blight and it had to do with the poison magic or whatever it was exactly, but seeing the older witch snap like that... it unnerved her for probably the same reason Amity was so terrified. <em>If Blight was capable of that, she could be too.</em></p><p>"I wish I was strong like you, Luz."</p><p>Amity's voice almost gave her a start. She hadn't said anything for a while and the studio was so quiet. <em>Huh, I guess it stopped raining, </em>she thought idly. Then Amity's words caught up with her.</p><p>"You are strong, Amity." She rocked them, just a little bit, as if to emphasize.. something. She didn't know. "You're strong and smart and talented. And you'll use all your strong-ness and smart-ness in whatever way you can and we're going to get through this together." She sounded so sure of it. Luz felt sure of it. She just couldn't see any alternative.</p><p>Amity's sobs hitched while she drew a breath to speak. "I want to believe you Luz. So badly." She sniffled and pressed in closer, if that were possible. "I'm just finding it so hard to believe right now." Luz nodded.</p><p>"That's okay. You don't have to believe right away. I can believe enough for the both of us. I'll believe so hard that you'll be sick of it, and when you're ready... I'll share it with you." She smiled, and when she felt Amity shudder rhythmically she thought maybe the witch had started crying again, but it turned out to be a soft laughter that she only had enough energy to express with her shoulders.</p><p>Luz could hear a voice calling out, and she perked up when she heard the heavy door downstairs scrape open. Looks like Noceda had found the glyph light she'd left hovering outside the building.</p><p>"Hey, you guys in here?" She sounded tired, and worried.</p><p>Luz looked down at Amity who looked up at her meekly, silently asking the witch's permission. When she nodded, Luz turned her head away so she could call out just loudly enough to be heard. "Yeah, we're up the stairs."</p><p>She could hear the old staircase protesting, and soon enough Noceda poked her head in the room and seemed to sag in relief when she saw them. She cautiously came through the door and meandered about half-way across the room before she crouched down, wet jacket slung over one arm, and wove her fingers together. She looked uncomfortable, guilty, and anxious.</p><p>"Hey." Luz said to break the silence. "I think we're going to just stay over here until it's light out, okay?" Noceda held her gaze for a moment and then nodded. "Want me to bring your stuff over?" She asked.</p><p>Luz felt Amity bury her face into her neck and she took a quick tally of the room, spying dusty old gym mats and deciding quickly that was probably fine. She looked back to the older human with an apologetic little smile.</p><p>"Thanks, but we're okay. We can get it in the morning."</p><p>Noceda looked like she wanted to ask something else, but thought better of it. She nodded once and then stood up, quietly exiting.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Noceda descended the creaky stairs, wet jacket folded over her arm. She idly glanced at the pictures of dancers and students on the walls and let her metal bat sway back and forth a little with her steps.</p><p>Her exchange with Luz had been rather non-committal. She figured she'd just have to wait until it was bright out and they'd likely tell her then if they wanted to continue on to Eda's as a group.</p><p><em>If they decide to head out alone it's not like I can stop them. </em>She thought realistically to herself. <em>Add a few more names to the list of people I care about who could be alive or dead for all I know.</em></p><p>Noceda grasped the engraved brass doorknob and pulled hard; she'd thought that the door was locked at first when she came to the building Luz's little light was hovering by, but it was just heavy and partly dragging on the ground.</p><p>She debated pulling her clammy wet jacket on while she was making her way back to Blight, it had pretty much stopped raining but-</p><p>The door was half open and she was looking up at a monster. </p><p>The deathly pallor of its skin and horrible misshapen body would have been enough to frighten anyone, but that's not what made Noceda freeze and shut down. She remembered that face; those huge tusks and slimy gaping snout. Mad, mad blue-grey eyes were shining from the little floating glyph light next to one wide, torn up ear.</p><p><em>Oh.</em> Noceda thought helpfully.</p><p>She slowly pushed the heavy door closed with a scrape and she could hear the creature inhale deeply before bellowing, "<em>It's Not Your HOUSE!"  </em>and striking the door so hard it flew right off the hinges and slammed Noceda into the wall next to the staircase. Her bat went spinning off into the darkness. The door was on a low angle in front of her, both pinning and hiding her but she was making no attempts to move.</p><p>Images of hooves crushing her body and the wrathful screaming of houses and their disputed ownership kept her paralyzed. The worst pain she could imagine was actually a memory and she was suddenly living it again.</p><p><em>This is the guy that killed me that night, </em>she thought idly amongst the anguished mental wailing.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Luz bolted upright and had to scramble to grab Amity so she didn't completely throw her off in her haste to get up. They both heard the deep bellowed words that had been haunting them all night and felt the impact of something getting hit <em>very </em>hard.</p><p>Luz grabbed her damp cloak and put it on then spun and held Amity by the upper arms. "I'm going to go check on her, stay here okay?" The witch nodded mutely, her gold eyes were wide and frightened and it just wasn't fair. <em>Haven't we been through enough tonight?  </em>Luz thought angrily.</p><p>Whatever was down the stairs was walking with an odd thud-drag-thud-drag sort of sound and Luz waited until she could hear it further in to the house's first floor.  She sneaked part-way down the stairs and could see the front door lying up against the wall.</p><p>She whispered as loud as she dared. "Noceda. Where are you?"</p><p>Getting no response, she tip-toed down the rest of the way but now she could see someone under the door and realized who it was.</p><p>"Noceda! Hey. Hey snap out of it!" She was clearly awake under there if her shuddering breathing was anything to go by but she wasn't moving. What the heck was going on?</p><p>Luz darted to the other side of the door and peeked around the wall, she couldn't see whatever had been moving around and it was quiet again, which didn't really make her feel better. She turned back to the door with the motionless older teen under it and she grabbed hold of the upper part and awkwardly tried to get it off of her without dropping the heavy thing or making too much noise. When she'd pivoted the door enough to lay it flat on the ground she turned back to get a good look at Noceda.</p><p>"Hey. Hey! Noceda!" Luz loud-whispered and shook her by the shoulder but she didn't get a response. The teen was just staring wide-eyed at nothing. Her lips were moving though and Luz bent in closer but she couldn't make out the words.</p><p>She felt a little tingle race up her spine and she sheepishly turned her head hoping it was Amity standing behind her.</p><p>"Wow, you're... really quiet for gentledemon your size, huh?" She said to the terrifying boar-monster looking down at her.</p><p>It's tusks were so large that it couldn't close its mouth and something about its face was almost familiar and <em>oh god it was winding up to take a swing at her-!</em></p><p>"Luz!" Amity shouted from the top of the stairs and she broke out of her trance and ducked to the side as a great hoof-like hand swung around and gouged a good chunk of wall out, raining plaster and dust on both her and Noceda. The tall demon was nearly stepping on the prone teen and Luz realized she needed to get it away from here or they would all be in grave trouble!</p><p>"Amity, try to wake Noceda up, I've got a plan!" She shouted and started waving her arms. "Hey Ugly! Betcha can't catch me!</p><p>Like she'd hoped, the beast followed her movement and it ambled towards her. Luz ducked out the front doorway minus a door and shouted a few more times, trying to keep its attention while she sprinted backwards out into the street.</p><p><em>You may be scary-looking but you're also slow!</em> </p><p>The monster had one good leg and the other was a twisted mass of hardened flesh that it had no choice but to drag in order to walk. When both it and she were out in the middle of the street Luz took out all the glyphs she had left and fanned them out in front of her. The sky was just starting to turn lighter shades of blue and purple in the east.</p><p>"Let's dance!" Luz grinned and it roared hatefully at her.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Amity swiftly made her way down the stairs and crouched next to Noceda, though she craned her head and tried to catch sight of what was going on outside.</p><p>She could hear the sounds of roaring and spells being cast and she quickly turned back to the wide-eyed teen on the ground.</p><p><em>She looks completely traumatized.</em> Amity thought to herself, and she tried shaking her shoulder. No response.</p><p>Amity spotted Noceda's jacket on the ground and scooped it up, tying it around her waist and she spared a moment looking for the hat she knew the older teen wore but she couldn't see it. She grabbed Noceda's arm and threw it over her shoulder, hoisting the teen up to her feet that didn't quite support her weight but weren't completely limp either.</p><p>"We're going to walk now, okay?" She held on tight to the human that was so familiar and yet not and she trudged her way to the front door to peek out, seeing Luz quite far down the street and taunting the pig-monster with glyph lights. She could hear Noceda mumbling lowly. <em>".. hurts.. stop... please.. stop killing...me..."</em></p><p>"We are going to have words about this later." Amity promised the human with narrowed eyes. She hefted more of Noceda's weight onto her shoulders and mostly dragged her out the door although the movement seemed to be slowly encouraging the human to try and find her feet.</p><p>She was loathe to be heading back in the direction that she knew the clinic was, and likely Blight as well. Amity would have liked much more time to get her head around things before trying to be in the older witch's proximity again. But there wasn't much choice and she knew she needed to get to Blight or not all of them would get out of this fiasco alive. Luz didn't have unlimited glyphs and whereas the monster was too slow to outright chase her down, it wasn't like they could just limp away like this.</p><p>She felt so tired. Staying up most of the night wasn't a completely foreign experience to Amity, but it usually involved books and practicing spellcasting rather than people screaming and fighting disfigured monsters. The tearful breakdowns weren't new though.</p><p>She was nearly at the clinic when Blight ran out the door, started when she saw the two of them, and then bee-lined for her. Amity felt her heart pick up to an uncomfortable pace as her gaze flicked from the older witch to the dead body of the insane witch lying there in the street. She kept her cool since Blight seemed to have control of herself and when she reached them she immediately hefted Noceda into her arms.</p><p>"You think you can handle getting little-Luz away from that thing?" She said, motioning to the roaring figure in the distance and keeping an unwavering golden stare that made the hairs on the back of Amity's neck raise up. She nodded, backing away somewhat although she was more eager to get to Luz than nervous of the witch now that she'd spoken. Blight nodded.</p><p>"Good. Meet us outside the town by the old siren fountain, I've got all your shit in my bag. Don't die."</p><p>And with that she turned and marched off, Noceda in her arms.</p><p><em>Gee thanks, </em>Amity thought dryly then immediately spun around and raced down the street to where she could see the large demon flailing around. Luz was keeping out of range of those huge tusks and heavy hoof-hands but she was definitely flagging. Amity couldn't see any more glyph spells being cast but there was evidence of them with ice pillars and vines sticking out of the ground. The beast was single-mindedly keeping Luz in its sights and wouldn't stop lumbering towards her.</p><p>"Amity!" Luz called out in relief the moment she saw her. Amity met her half way and they danced back as the monster turned to keep its increasingly angry gaze on them. It was foaming at the mouth with frustration.</p><p>"Luz are you alright?" She asked, trying to get a look at her while not taking her eyes off the furious demon. Her hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat from exertion and the humidity. Luz nodded and then added, "Yeah I'm fine, but I've only got one ice glyph left and I can't seem to get this guy to stop! Nothing I throw at him is working!"</p><p>Amity grabbed Luz by the arm and pulled her away as the monster stomped towards them and, thinking quickly, came up with an idea.</p><p>"Luz, keep up with me okay?" She made a wide arc around the ugly pig-creature and skidded to a stop directly behind it. Luz was right on her heels, good. While it bellowed and struggled to pivot with its blocky mess of a leg, Amity quickly drew a spellcircle and a pink force cage rose out of the ground around it.</p><p>Luz squinted at it for a second and then pointed indignantly. "Hey, you put me in one of those! Which was rude, by the way." Amity rolled her eyes and smirked at her. Then she grabbed Luz by the hand again and they ran around to the other side of the glowing cage when the demon had stopped and was facing them, seemingly distracted by the glowing criss-cross of magic in front of it. It reached out to touch the cage and grunted in pain when it's hoof was zapped.</p><p>"Luz, use your ice glyph to make a wide block right here." Amity told her suddenly, pointing to the ground between them and the cage. The demon inside was slowly turning around again, probably trying to get a focus on them. Obediently, Luz darted closer and put the ice glyph paper on the ground and tapped it. A big, wide block of ice grew out of the ground and the caged-in demon was hidden from their view.</p><p><em>And us from his, </em>Amity thought. She hoped her hunch was correct, and she held a finger up to Luz before the human could ask her any questions.</p><p>They stayed still for a moment, Luz trying to steady out her breathing since she didn't have those angry eyes on her for a hot second. Amity listened to the demon on the other side of the ice. She could tell from the volume of its ragged breathing that it was facing their direction now, but it wasn't making any move to charge or break out of the cage. Amity held a finger up again to Luz and she started walking directly away from the ice in the direction Blight had gone with Noceda. Luz followed her with a wondrous look on her face, and then looked back at the cage.</p><p>They heard a sharp <em>zap</em> and another deep grunt of pain, and then silence. A moment and several paces later they heard another zap, another grunt.</p><p>She'd been right! Without a target to focus on, the monster wouldn't rile itself up! Now it was just ponderously tottering in the cage since it couldn't see or hear them anymore.</p><p><em>That should hold him until we're far enough away, </em>Amity thought smugly.</p><p>Luz was beaming at Amity as they quietly made their way down the street that was becoming more illuminated with the coming dawn. She was alternating between pointing at her head and flexing her arms, mouthing, "strong-ness and smart-ness!" over and over.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Please Sir, I want some Lore - Part 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It wasn't long until Amity had directed the two of them to a place just outside of the small town where an impressive statue depicting a long amphibian-looking creature stood as the swooping centrepiece of a cute little park. It's tiny front limbs and gills had broken off and been reduced to rubble though, making it look more like a happy snake now.</p><p>On one of the benches Blight had laid Noceda out on her side and was using a healing glyph for a rather nasty-looking bruise on the base of her neck where she must have impacted with the wall back at the dance studio. It didn't completely fade when she was done and Luz jogged over to ask, "Want me to give that a try?"</p><p>Blight shrugged and replied in a mildly clipped tone. "That's probably as good as it's going to get for now. I've already used a couple on her today, we can try again in a few hours."</p><p>Luz sent Amity a questioning look but all she said was, "Magical saturation," by means of explanation.</p><p><em>I guess healing glyphs have their limits too,</em> she thought to herself.</p><p>Blight walked over to them and Luz could see that she had both her and Amity's witch's bags slung around her shoulders. She took off the newer looking one and handed it to Amity with a neutral expression. Amity seemed to receive it with just as much stoicism. The older witch then started digging around in her bag and pulling out camping gear and overnight bags and everything else she had apparently picked up for them from the clinic.</p><p>To break the forcibly calm atmosphere, Luz voiced the first thought that came in to her head. "Those bags are really neat. If you had a whole bunch of them and put them all in one bag, you'd be able to carry like a huge amount of stuff with you and not even look like it!"</p><p>To her delight, it seemed to work as Amity snorted and Blight donned a wry smirk. With a teasing tone the older witch replied with, "What's that old saying again? Don't wear socks with sandals and never layer pocket dimensions?"</p><p>She was pulling out the second sleeping bag which was still partly hanging out of the little tent they'd borrowed. "Maybe don't let her near yours, she might end up destroying it." Blight directed that last part to Amity, regarding her witch's bag with an amused eyebrow.</p><p>Luz grinned at the little jab and then noticed the surprise addition. "Oh hey you brought the tent! That's awesome! We can have more tent-sleepovers Amity!" Luz took the somewhat smushed tent and sleeping bag and started to disassemble and roll them up. Amity was looking at Blight with mild surprise and she just shrugged in response, "Thought it was yours."</p><p>Amity seemed to remember about the jacket she had tied around her waist and fumbled with the knot she'd tied with the arms. When she went to hand it to Blight, the older witch's expression took on a hint of surprised gratitude and took it with a quiet, "Thanks."</p><p>"I um... couldn't see where her hat went though." Amity shuffled awkwardly and Luz thought she looked about ready to expect a rebuke. To her relief though, Blight waved her off and headed over to place Noceda's jacket on the bench beside her. "It's fine, I've got it. I'll check in a bit to see if I have any more of your guys' stuff."</p><p>Blight stood facing mostly away from the two of them looking decidedly uncertain now. Luz instinctually wanted to try and break the silence again but something was telling her to let the older witch get to what she was nerving up to say.</p><p>She opened and closed her mouth a few times, not sure where to start. Amity was facing her but not looking at her directly and fiddling with the straps of her bag, like she was trying to appear casually occupied but not busy.</p><p>"So... Um. Last night was. Tough. For all of us."</p><p>Blight's lips were thin and she was clearly underwhelmed by her approach to the subject. Amity still didn't look at her directly but she stopped fiddling with her bag and kept an ear trained on her words. The older witch glanced back at Noceda's curled up form on the bench and then turned back to the two of them with a deep breath.</p><p>"I got... kind of upset last night, and..." She looked over at Amity and then to Luz, who was trying to keep her most calmly encouraging expression possible so as not to derail Blight's train of thought. "Well, I did something I wish you hadn't seen."</p><p>She quickly corrected herself, "I mean, I wish I didn't do it at all, but like... sometimes it's really hard to... control myself." She finished lamely. "I'm sorry you guys had to see that. I'm working on it. Noceda is helping me with it."</p><p>Blight was playing with a claw and keeping her eyes low. Her worried posture screamed of expected disapproval and was so similar to how Amity would act sometimes Luz really wanted to go and hug her. She didn't want to ruin the moment by testing her familiarity with the older witch but she did look straight at Amity in hopes she would try to engage.</p><p>Amity glanced at her and Luz shot her an encouraging smile and flashed her a double thumbs up. That seemed to help give the young witch enough of a confidence boost to move closer and get Blight's attention.</p><p>"Blight..." She cleared her throat before continuing and swiped some of her hair behind an ear absent-mindedly. "What you're going through scares me, scares us," she glanced quickly at Luz for reassurance. "But we'll do our best to try to understand and um... maybe help if we can. Even if that's maybe just... staying out of your way or giving you space when you need it." She worried her lip a bit and then continued when Blight didn't respond or interrupt. "And if you think it might be useful at all, you can.. talk to me about some of it." She offered a tentative little smile which Blight almost managed to return. The older witch looked like she didn't really know what to say but settled for, "Might take you up on that."</p><p>They stood there in awkward silence for a moment (which Luz was enjoying far too much honestly) and then Blight seemed to need a break from her impromptu circle sharing and she spun around and started clapping Noceda on the side of the head none-too-gently.</p><p>"Well, the Owl Place isn't getting any closer with us just standing here so <strong>wake up Noceda</strong>!"</p><p>"Shit!" The older human jolted to awareness and sat up looking decidedly crabby. "Your bedside manner sucks." She was rubbing at her now rather red cheek and ear.</p><p>"Now that you're back in the land of the aware, let's get a move-on, shall we?" Blight insisted just a little too enthusiastically and picked up Noceda's jacket and stuffed it into her arms. She was digging around in her bag to produce Noceda's beanie as the other teen grumpily lifted herself off the bench to moodily slip her jacket back on.</p><p>Once all of their stuff was re-distributed and packed away, Luz stood to attention and gave Noceda an encouraging smile as she hefted her backpack on, signalling her and Amity's readiness to journey on. The relief on the older teen's face was almost shocking and it seemed to lift her spirits up right away. She eagerly did a quick checking-in of her map and had them promptly on a north-east course to Eda's. Had they just gone east, they would hit the main path between the area of the bluffs that the Owl House was located in and the southern route to Bonesborough. So they were cutting across the woods in hopes of saving an hour or two. According to the map, Bonesborough was still several hours away but Eda's was much closer!</p><p>"Any chance someone has my bat?" Noceda asked suddenly, possibly reminded by the snapping sound of a twig underfoot. Luz peeked over at her to see that it wasn't in fact strapped to her bag like it usually was.</p><p>"It wasn't with your backpack at the clinic." Blight responded, though she started digging around in her witch's bag anyways. Luz noticed that Amity suddenly looked very anxious.</p><p>"Nah I brought it with me when I was looking for these two." Noceda responded with a little frown and gestured vaguely at Luz and Amity. "Guess I lost it when Porkchop knocked me down." She grumbled.</p><p>Amity flushed with shame. "I'm sorry, I was the one who moved you, but I didn't see it!"</p><p>Luz was just about to step in and stop her from getting too upset but Noceda held her hands up appeasingly, "It's alright, Amity. I've probably got another one stashed somewhere at Eda's. Thanks for helping me out of there, that bastard sure knocked me for a loop."</p><p>Amity seemed to accept the explanation though her little frown didn't go away. After a while Luz could tell something was still bothering her, but she couldn't figure out what and her friend kept glancing inconspicuously at Noceda with her brows furrowing in thought each time.</p><p>By the time it was approaching mid-morning they were in much more elevated territory than before and Luz stepped away from the others to carefully take in the view of the bluffs from their side. The geography was similar, but not quite how she remembered it looking on the Boiling Isles. There almost seemed to be much more coast and low sea-level areas, though she couldn't be sure. Luz made a mental note to herself.</p><p>
  <em>I'll see if I can find that book of the Isles that King showed me once, or more maps of this version of the island.</em>
</p><p>She admired the view for a moment longer and then Luz could feel her stomach drop. Lower down on the bluffs stood the pig monster from Collagentown.</p><p>"Uhh... guys? We <em>might</em> have a problem here." She sent an anxious look their way and Amity sprinted over with Noceda and Blight right behind her.</p><p>Amity pointed indignantly. "That's not possible! I trapped him in a force cage!"</p><p>When Noceda peered over the edge all the colour drained out of her face and she stumbled a few steps and backed into a tree, holding her mid-section tightly and breathing hard through gritted teeth. Blight growled down at the beast, although it seemed to be too far away to notice them.</p><p><em>Actually, it doesn't look like he's searching for us at all</em>. Luz curled her fingers into circles in front of her eyes reminiscent of binoculars and studied the demon closely. It was carefully stepping along the precarious edges of the bluff and then started to heave itself up the side of the cliff. <em>Wait a second...</em></p><p>"That's not the same guy!" Luz exclaimed. "This one has two normal legs and he isn't all beat up. The demon Amity and I were fighting was all gross and pale and his ear was torn!" Beside her, Amity shaded her eyes with a hand to peer down at the rather intact-looking pig monster as it scaled the cliff slowly, but with relatively little effort. Her eyes widened and she took a few steps back. "I think she's right. What does that mean?"</p><p>"It means either he miraculously healed and teleported, or there's more than one of them." Blight crossed her arms and wrinkled her nose in distaste. She shot an annoyed look over at Noceda who was evening out against her tree, although Luz didn't figure her irritation was directed at the human specifically. Perhaps it was confusion on her face.</p><p>Luz carefully approached Noceda and she felt a bit apprehensive asking, but this was the fourth time now that she'd had some sort of bad reaction to an enemy. "Noceda... are you alright?"</p><p>The older teen clapped her hands against her cheeks a couple of times and pushed herself off of the tree to stand on her feet, swaying slightly. She still looked a bit sick though.</p><p>"I'm fine. Can we get a move-on? We're close to Eda's and that thing is too far away to be a problem right now." She said tersely. Luz noticed Amity narrowing a suspicious look at Noceda but she didn't want to push the issue. She hoped the older teen would explain her strange behaviour on her own.</p><p>As they kept heading north-east the ground was beginning to incline up more and they came to a break in the trees that showed..</p><p>"Hey! I know this path, Eda's is right up there!" Luz cheered. She wasn't overly familiar with the woods around the Owl House but the paths to and from she knew well. A glance over at Noceda confirmed it when she nodded looking relieved and the four of them were hiking up the wide dirt path with a bit more spring in their step.</p><p>"Amity see that bend up there? We just take the right and you can see-" Luz yelped, cut off by the sight of a huge pig monster crunching through the trees ahead and to their right.</p><p>Noceda stiffened up again next to Luz but before it could turn and look at them Blight scratched a spellcircle in the air and a pink fire ball immediately burst to life with a tangible pulse, then lost its shape and roiled in the air above her outstretched hand.</p><p>Luz held very still as the beast stared in their direction. This one was <em>much</em> bigger than the other two. It's tusks were long and thin and one was broken at the tip. Judging from its muscled appearance and very alert ears, this demon was far more dangerous than the one she and Amity took on before.</p><p>Luz chanced a glance at Amity who was completely focused although her clenched fists were shaking. Blight was holding very still, judging the beast.</p><p>Both witches let out a breath in tandem as the hulking demon continued to lumber its way across the path. It seemed like Blight's illusory fire was enough to hide them.</p><p>"Let's go." Blight said lowly, and she took hold of the front of Noceda's jacket and started walking them forward. The poor brown-haired teen had her eyes clenched shut and more stumbled than walked. Luz sidled up a bit closer to them than she normally would, not wanting to accidentally fall outside of the barrier hiding them. She glanced at Noceda with a frown. <em>There's definitely something fishy about her recently.</em></p><p>"..t's... not... your... house..." The beast grumbled as it disappeared into the trees.</p><p>They walked in silence for about a minute when Noceda started prying at Blight's hand muttering, "Hold on, hold on gimme a sec.." and she crouched down to dry heave right there in the middle of the path.</p><p>It seemed like Amity had reached her limits on the strangeness. She crossed her arms and set a rather pointed look down on Noceda. "So, are we going to talk about what's going on with you and these boar demons?"</p><p>Blight snapped back instead, "Leave her alone." This prompted Amity to glare at her instead, and Luz quickly threw herself between them, hands up in a placating gesture, "Hey hey, <em>friends</em>, we're all really tired here, we can just-"</p><p>"No!" Amity reached out and pushed Luz back, not hard but firmly enough to get the message across. She locked glares with the older witch. "We are relying on each other to stay safe, and <em>something</em> is clearly affecting her. You need to tell us what it is! You know, don't you?"</p><p>Blight squared her shoulders and drew herself up to her full height, which Amity did seem to take note of (it intimidated the <em>heck</em> out of Luz) and although she was shaking nervously, she didn't back down. </p><p>"She'll tell you about it when she's ready." Blight growled.</p><p>"So there is something." Amity declared. Noceda was trying to get to her feet and Luz scrambled to lend her a hand. The older teen was shaking her head groggily but recovering swiftly. "Guys.."</p><p>"Back off." Blight snarled, and her hands tensed, bringing Luz's incredibly nervous attention to those lethal claws of hers.</p><p>"Do those things have something to do with her dying?" Amity pointed a finger at Noceda, who looked shocked and Blight's eyes widened but she said nothing. Luz turned to look at Noceda like she'd sprouted antlers. "Whuuuh?"</p><p>"You said that you weren't used to dying, 'unlike her'." Amity continued, using finger quotes on the last part. Noceda's head snapped towards the older witch who looked shocked and confused, but Amity went on, "At the trees we were under once we crossed the gorge. I heard you say that." Luz could tell she had something else she was going to add, but stopped herself and thinned her lips, digging in stubbornly.</p><p>Noceda took her weight off of Luz and tsked in irritation.. at Blight. "You said what?" She grouched and wiped the dirt off of her knees, not looking at any of them. Blight looked like she was caught in headlights and stammered before withdrawing and planting her gaze firmly at the ground. She dropped her hand, ending her fire spell, and backed further away looking very apprehensive.</p><p>"I.. didn't mean to." Luz could barely make the witch's quiet words out.</p><p>"Heyy, well why don't we all just you know," Luz tried to link her arm in Amity's, although the younger witch wormed out of it and kept her posture quite assertive, glaring at both older teens in turn. "We could talk about this later when we aren't all <em>wound up</em> and all that, right?" Luz was trying to keep her voice amicable but even she could tell how unconvincing she sounded.</p><p>Amity whirled on her and caused Luz to flinch back in surprise, although the aggression died down almost instantly. She didn't stop, but her voice wasn't so harsh when she asked, "You aren't at least a little concerned about this?"</p><p>Luz shuffled her feet in the dirt and replied, "Well, I won't say I'm not curious.." She sent a little imploring look Noceda's way with her bottom lip stuck out. She had already been wondering what was up with the pig demons, but whatever all <em>this</em> was had flown right under her radar.</p><p>Noceda hissed in frustration and seemed well enough to wave at them all to keep going. "Fine, fine." She scratched hard at her hair under her beanie. "Just, let's walk and talk alright?"</p><p>Luz tried not to let her deep breath of relief sound too obvious as the four of them picked up to continue along the path. Noceda looked like she was trying to figure out how to start and Blight was ahead looking abashed and was wringing her hands anxiously. Luz peeked at Amity who was glancing between the two of them, and if Luz didn't know her better, she'd swear she had a bit of a triumphant gleam in her eye.</p><p>They weren't far from the bend in the road that Luz had first pointed out to Amity earlier when Noceda finally spoke. She sounded tired.</p><p>"So... I've. Uh. I've died before." She started awkwardly. Luz couldn't take her eyes off of the older teen and she had Amity's full attention too. "Several times." She let out a little cough.</p><p>Noceda cleared her throat and straightened up. Then she started shuffling out of her jacket and tied it around her waist by the arms. Finally she seemed ready to continue. "I found a curse scroll at Eda's a few years back. She's been collecting them since, ya know... Lilith 'fessed up about cursing her. I sorta activated it on myself by accident."</p><p>Luz got a few paces ahead of her and started walking backwards with her hands behind her head. She really felt like eye-to-eye contact was necessary here. Or at least eye-to-face, since Noceda noticed but just continued while looking nowhere in particular.</p><p>"It's called the Nine-Lives curse, or something like that. Like you'd guess, it... gives me extra lives when I've been... mortally wounded." She said flatly. She kicked a stone along the ground and it rolled past Luz's shoe. "One time I was in a pretty bad fight... I didn't know who'd killed me then until I saw that pig bastard back at the town."</p><p>Luz gaped in realization. "So you think that guy.. um... you know.."</p><p>Noceda nodded neutrally. "It was one of those things at least. If there's more of them then I guess there's no telling which one. I can't usually remember that night clearly, but I know roughly what the guy looked like and it was definitely one of those pig demons." She shrugged. "And I remember it kept going on about that thing with the houses. Kept saying it over and over again. Maybe they all do that, I dunno."</p><p>Something occurred to Luz just then. "Hey, the crazy old witch that woke us up was saying it too. But he's not a pig monster?" She looked over at Amity to see if she had any ideas, but she just shrugged. "I don't really remember that very well." She said.</p><p>"Yeah, I don't know what that was about. Maybe that witch heard the one in town saying it and just repeated it." Noceda said though she looked unconvinced. "I didn't recognize him at all, just his yelling was bothering me."</p><p>"Mmmmmaybe... he was trying to warn us? About the pig demon I mean." Luz wondered out loud. "He was scary and kinda annoying but he didn't actually attack any of us, right?" She looked up to see Amity and Noceda's matching wide-eyes looks of sick realization. Luz couldn't help but cringingly peek behind her to Blight who was up ahead, and although her back was towards them the wild-haired witch suddenly looked decidedly more miserable than she had before. "Maybe... we should just not bring that up again, huh..." Luz murmured, and the others looked very much like they agreed.</p><p>"So... the curse. It brings you back to life if you're killed?" Luz asked. "Does it do it nine times if it's called the 'nine-lives curse'? I mean, obviously it's pretty awful to die but I mean... curses are usually bad and that kinda seems like, you know. A bonus." Luz almost tripped on a dip in the path and spun around to walk beside Noceda instead.</p><p>She scoffed. "Yeah, I thought so too. Turns out that as lovely as it is to live through something that's killed you, ya still gotta live with it period. I remember each time I've died. It's awful." Luz reached out a hand and patted Noceda sympathetically on the arm. She breathed in deeply and let out a sigh. "The pig demon probably affects me more because I know he killed me a few times that night."</p><p>Luz heard Amity gasp and she fidgeted before returning her gaze to Noceda.</p><p>"I kept reviving, so.. he kept stomping me to death." She reached up and absently placed an arm across her middle, clutching at her shirt from the painful memory.</p><p>"I'm really sorry..." Luz glanced over to Amity who'd spoken suddenly; she looked very guilty. "I didn't know... I shouldn't have pestered you about it."</p><p>Noceda waved her off. "Nah, it's already done. And if there are a lot of those things it means I'm not going to be much help unless I can get over it, and fast. Maybe having this out in the open is for the best."</p><p>Luz looked up to see Blight peeking back hopefully at them through her mint-green hair, but she jerked forward again when Noceda glanced ahead at her. Luz noticed the tiniest upward quirk of the older teen's lips and she smiled to herself. <em>At least it doesn't look like she's going to stay mad at Blight for too long,</em> she thought, relieved.</p><p>"So... how many lives do you think you have left?" Luz suddenly asked. Amity choked a bit and snapped, "Luz!" under her breath and Luz realized how insensitive that probably sounded. "Ahh... sorry." She held her hands up apologetically. Noceda shrugged but it didn't come off as nonchalantly as she probably hoped it did. <em>Why'd you have to go an ask that, you dummy,</em> Luz berated herself.</p><p>"Dunno really. First time I died was not long before I left the Owl House. Then the pig bastard, but I don't know how many times he got me. Definitely a few." Noceda squinted as she tried to remember, rubbing absently at her middle again. "I've died twice while I was with Blight heading back here. And I don't really know if it gives me nine extra lives or I just have nine in total, you know, including my original one."</p><p>Luz couldn't imagine how awful it must feel to remember yourself dying, never mind that many times. She remembered the pain of badly twisting her ankle one time and it still gave her the heebie-jeebies if she thought too hard about it and recalled what the tearing muscles had felt like.</p><p>"There was the painbow."</p><p>"Huh?" Noceda looked up at Blight who had finally chanced speaking. Luz vaguely recalled King telling her one time about painbows.. <em>"It's like a rainbow, but looking at it turns you inside-out!"</em></p><p>"Before you found me at Las Pelvis. You told me you'd looked at a painbow and it killed you." She still looked pretty subdued. Amity shot Noceda a scared sort of look, appearing a bit queasy herself.</p><p>Noceda actually <em>chuckled.</em> "Ohh. No, ah... that was a lie. I just wanted to see your reaction. Gotta get my jollies somewhere, right?"</p><p>Luz almost wanted to chuckle when both Blight and Amity were looking at the older human with identical, "<em>Really??"</em>  expressions. It seemed to dramatically lift the tension though and she let out a little breath of relief. But suddenly thoughts of horrible deaths and revivals flew out of her head because-</p><p>"I can see the Owl House!" Luz exclaimed excitedly. Up ahead, partly obscured by trees, she could make out the unmistakable, very welcome, <em>truthfully glorious</em> front of Eda's wonderful dwelling! She could even see Hooty on the door, and he was diving into the ground to come meet them!</p><p>Luz glanced around for any sign of dangerous demons and darted forward. Hooty popped out of the ground right in front of her and she partly ran into him, throwing her arms around him in a hug.</p><p>"OhmygoshHooty I never thought I'd say it but am I <em>ever</em> glad to see you!" She could feel little tears in the corners of her eyes, but she was suddenly being wrenched back by Noceda who was talking at her in her usual irritated voice.</p><p>"Kid do you have any sense at all in that head of yours?" She snapped. Luz furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and looked back at Hooty. Other than the bottomless empty pits where his eyes used to be, he look perfectly... ooooh.</p><p>She could feel Amity and Blight on guard behind her and to the right, and she could see Noceda tensing beside her, not taking her eyes off of Hooty.</p><p>The house demon was just staring at them, not moving a... whatever makes up his body. Luz swallowed thickly and tried for a little wave and a wavering sort of smile. "Hi... Hooty. How's it hangin'?" <em>Wow, those eye-holes are unnerving.</em></p><p>After a very long minute, Hooty slowly pulled back into the hole he'd made in the dirt and they could see him retract out the other end and re-affix to the door.</p><p>Noceda shot her a disapproving look, then started to carefully move forward. The rest of them followed and Luz glanced at Amity whose expression seemed to say, '<em>Well what were you expecting?'</em></p><p>Once they were much closer to the door, Noceda had to remind Blight to keep her cool and when Hooty remained motionless she spoke in a surprisingly gentle voice that Luz hadn't heard from her before.</p><p>"Hooty, do you remember who I am?"</p><p>Luz held her breath in anxious suspense, but the usually annoyingly talkative demon said nothing. He opened his beak, and Luz thought he was going to respond finally, but... he just closed it again. Then the door slowly swung outward without any fanfare.</p><p>"Yeah that's totally not gonna come back to bite us in the ass." Blight muttered behind Luz.</p><p>The four of them gingerly filed in, and the door closed quietly. With a small splutter, the lights and candles around the room sprung to life and mixed with the late-morning sunlight coming in through the stained-glass windows, casting the room and hallways leading out of it in a welcomingly cheerful glow.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>"Hello! Anybody home? Eda? King?... Owlbert?"</p><p>Noceda flinched as Luz cupped her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice although she certainly didn't feel the younger teen needed any help when it came to being <em>loud. </em>In any case, Noceda didn't have any realistic expectations that anyone was going to be home, other than Hooty (sort of).</p><p>
  <em>Of course we couldn't be that lucky.</em>
</p><p>The living room looked more or less like it did the day she'd left. In addition to the usual mishmash of items and artifacts that Eda had stacked on shelves, in corners and hung on walls there were also papers filled with writing and open or dog-eared books on every surface, old blankets, food containers, medical supplies, a dirty old shovel..</p><p>And a deep breath told her there were definitely going to be some scent-tacular surprises waiting for them. After something close to a year, pretty much anything organic and able to retain any moisture was going to need to be dealt with if they were going to stay here for any significant amount of time.</p><p>
  <em>It sure would be nice to have a safe place to operate out of for a few days at least...</em>
</p><p>Luz suddenly took off and darted into the guest bathroom. Noceda could hear a faucet turn on... and water come out. A gleeful little squeal proved that Luz was at least one-tenth as happy about this discovery as she was.</p><p>"We have running water, and hot water too!" She called out. She ran back out into the living room just as Amity asked in a monotone, "How many bathrooms with showers does this place have?"</p><p>To Noceda it was almost felt surreal to think about a shower after months of glyph-conjured springwater. And the occasional improvised bath heated by pink fire that took forever to actually change temperature and cooled off all too quickly... She noticed three pairs of eyes staring at her, waiting on her reply to Amity's question.</p><p>"There's one upstairs in the hall and one in Eda's room." She replied, feeling almost dazed. Luz snapped a finger out and shouted, "YES! I call the secret bathroom!" And with that she was snatching up her backpack and running out into one of the hallways yelling, "Amity you can have it after meeeee!"</p><p>Somewhere sounding far away a door slammed, and Noceda found herself... smiling. There were dust motes hanging in the coloured sunbeams pouring in from the windows.</p><p>Blight cleared her throat pointedly and Noceda snapped back to the present. Amity was fidgeting and Blight raising an eyebrow at her. She shook her head a bit to clear it and shifted her bag on her shoulder, "Well, uh... follow me I guess."</p><p>She led them up the stairs and into the hallway that led to her old room among other things and the bathroom with a shower. Pointing at it, she told Amity to go use it and the little witch nodded meekly and shuffled off. Still feeling a bit surreal in the familiar hallways with their familiar paintings and tables of relics, Noceda just kind of floated down the other hallway that led to Eda's room.</p><p>The door was open, and she stepped in almost timidly. A complicated weight of emotion was starting to settle in her stomach as she looked around the room and took in the mess that was basically undisturbed from the last time she saw it. Papers and books were left everywhere, along with beakers of murky liquids, dried out ingredients and various other things that Eda and Lilith had been using while trying to figure out what was causing everyone's magic to slowly poison them. Even her nest was overflowing with junk she'd just shoved in there to get it out of the way; not like she'd been sleeping much in those last couple weeks.</p><p>Noceda distantly heard Blight inquire about the en suite and she pointed towards it automatically. Her attention was quickly drawn though when she felt Blight's hand grasping the front of her jacket, the witch was pulling her gently but firmly with something akin to hunger in her eyes.</p><p>She held her ground and reached up to hold Blight's pale wrist and gave her a flat look.</p><p>"You sorta outed me as a quasi-zombie, Blight. I'm kind of mad at you still."</p><p>The witch pursed her lips and her expression was some sort of a middle ground between defensive and almost pouty. It was ridiculously cute, but like hell she was going to relent that easy.</p><p>Blight seemed to have a stroke of inspiration and cautiously drew in close, turning the charm up to eleven and looking up at Noceda through her lashes. "You'll let me make it up to you, right?"</p><p><em>Smooth.</em> But they were already moving, Blight pulling her gently while walking backwards and definitely not for the first time Noceda silently cursed those golden eyes that just went on forever. A voice in the back of her mind was telling her she was supposed to be feeling terrible and guilty and angry right now but she did her best to bludgeon it with a mental baseball bat because <em>fuck it would be nice to not feel shitty for a little while.</em></p><p>Blight was grinning, a fang poking over her bottom lip and victory lighting her up in a way that usually meant good things for Noceda. Though... She reached up and pinched the sharp little fang between her fingers and said in a rather authoritative voice, "You'll keep these to yourself."</p><p>With a coy nod that Noceda didn't believe for a second, Blight spun away to size up the en suite washroom and inspect the shower. She was visibly and audibly delighted when it too proved to be in fully working order.</p><p>With a bit of a cringe Noceda slipped off her jacket and hesitated to pull off her shirt. Like most red-blooded humans she wasn't very fond of her odor and it made her more self-conscious than she already was about her body. Living and travelling out in the woods like a vagabond didn't exactly do her any favours in that department.</p><p>She hadn't really noticed that Blight had finished tweaking the temperature of the showerhead to her liking, and the witch must have noticed her indecision. She suddenly draped her arms around Noceda's neck and buried her face in the crook of her shoulder to inhale as deeply as her lungs could manage. Noceda could feel the witch's toothy grin and she relaxed a bit. <em>Ah, right. I forgot. She called it my 'musk'.</em></p><p>"Yeah, I still don't get how that doesn't bother you. I know I reek." She grumbled, and Blight reached down to start pulling her sweaty striped shirt up over her head.</p><p>"Don't compare my nose to yours." She said in a haughty sort of tone once Noceda's head popped out of the neckline and the shirt was tossed to the floor without a thought. "Do I smell bad to you?" She fixed her with a challenging golden stare that was already confident of the answer she would get.</p><p>Sucking her teeth, Noceda mumbled, "guess not," to which Blight smugly responded with, "Well there you go." And with that she was making quick work of her own shirt, still baring tell-tale stains from the literal bloodshed that had occurred several hours prior.</p><p>"But I know you're all sensitive about it so let's just get in there already."</p><p>It still took Noceda a little while to nerve up enough to strip the rest of the way and join Blight in the hot-but-soothing spray of the shower. Admittedly, it did feel heavenly.</p><p>"I so rarely get to see everything at once." Blight practically purred and slipped her arms around Noceda's shoulders. Unlike Noceda, the green-haired witch was totally comfortable in her body when she was clear-headed and feeling safe enough to enjoy it.</p><p>She could feel her face heat up and Noceda reached up to lightly pinch her on the breast.</p><p>"Noink."</p><p>The spray was loud in her ears and Blight just gave her a knowing look. She could feel her face getting hotter. The witch slipped in closer and murmured, "You're so cute when you're all flustered."</p><p>Noceda spied a flask of what she assumed was shampoo and un-hooked the top to pour out some of the rather powerful herb-smelling liquid into her palm. She started running her hands in Blight's thick hair like a life-line for her sense of dignity. The witch just smirked and closed her eyes, feeling around for the cake of soap she had likely spotted during her initial inspection.</p><p>At some point Noceda could feel those soapy fingers trace over a particular little imperfection of the skin on her back, next to her right shoulder blade. Blight still couldn't open her eyes with all the suds in her hair but she grinned, flashing a fang, and said, "I still say that was from me."</p><p>"It's a birthmark and I'll defend that to my grave." Noceda replied firmly.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"I really wanna open it."</p><p>"Do <strong>not</strong> open it."</p><p>"... I really think I should open it." Noceda reached out for the handle.</p><p>"I will remove your hand from your wrist if you touch it." Blight growled.</p><p>Noceda looked forlornly at the tempting and innocent-looking refrigerator while the crabby no-good fun-draining witch flexed her unfairly sharp claws threateningly. Who knew what fun sort of monstrosities were lurking within the ordinary human appliance.</p><p>It was some time after noon and the two of them were milling about the kitchen, checking for food that was still edible after many months of abandonment. Anything they could find that was of use was thrown on top of the kitchen table and a few knives went in the pile to be stashed away later as backup weapons and tools. There were notes and book-marked tomes in there as well and Noceda made sure to collect all of those to add to the much larger pile of collective knowledge that she'd started in the living room.</p><p>"Spoil-sport." Noceda grumbled as she wandered into the living room to fall in to the large comfy couch and threw her most recent handful of notes on one of the stacks that was next to the table, but just as tall.</p><p><em>We've got like a year's worth of shit to go through, this is gonna take a while, </em>she thought with a frown. At the same time that pouring over Eda and Lilith's work would be tedious and probably difficult to piece together anything the four of them would understand... there was something kinda nice about the thought of holing up in the Owl House for a little while and enjoying the relative peace and safety.</p><p>She heard a soft creaking and looked up to see Amity poking her head in from the hallway. She looked a bit pink and her hair was damp.</p><p>Noceda waved her over. "Hey. Feel free to grab a seat. And there's food in the kitchen on the table that should be okay to eat."</p><p>The younger witch shyly stepped in the room and sat down stiffly on the other couch, folding her hands in her lap and looking everywhere except at Noceda. <em>That's odd.</em></p><p>She had changed out of her school robes finally and was wearing a more casual outfit. Noceda was about to give her a compliment in hopes that she'd settle down somewhat when Blight waltzed in with a handful of dried and salted foodstuffs and crashed down on the couch next to her, resting her stocking feet against Noceda's thigh. This seemed to make the little witch's face blaze even hotter. <em>Very odd.</em></p><p>"Hey Midget-Me, catch." Blight tossed a package of biscuits at her and she snatched them before they could hit her but kept silent. She was peering around now almost desperately. Finally she asked, "Is Luz still washing up?" She wouldn't keep eye-contact and was fidgeting with the hem of her skirt.</p><p>"Haven't seen her yet." Noceda replied evenly, keeping Amity in the corner of her eye. "Maybe one of us should go check on her?"</p><p>"<strong>I'll go make sure she's okay."</strong> Amity got up quickly enough to launch her little package of biscuits to the floor and went speed-walking out into the hallway that Luz had shot off through in pursuit of her supposed secret bathroom. Blight watched her go with a piece of some type of jerky half-way to her mouth and quirked an eyebrow.</p><p>"Scream if you get into any trouble." Noceda called out loudly, and heard a sort of, "eep!" from further off in response.</p><p>Noceda tilted her head like it would give her a better view of the hallway and furrowed her eyebrows. "That was weird, right? She looked...really red." Blight sniffed the air delicately and relaxed into the cushy couch arm and throw pillow. Her lips curled a bit devilishly around her snack. Noceda narrowed her eyes at her, "..what is it?"</p><p>The witch snickered. "I think she heard us." She was donning the faintest of blushes and she began to gnaw on her jerky with a girlish sort of satisfaction in her eye.</p><p><em>Oops.</em> Noceda scratched at her neck awkwardly. <em>I guess that might do it.</em></p><p>They just sat and enjoyed the peace for a while until Noceda heard a set of overly-excitable footsteps bounce down the hallway. Sure enough, Luz appeared looking fresh and clean with Amity in tow and she plopped down onto the smaller couch.</p><p>"Did you fall asleep in there or something?" Noceda joked, though she was relieved to see that Luz appeared so content and vibrant. She'd switched out her hoodie and pants that were in dire need of a wash like many of their clothes and had donned a simple t-shirt and shorts for the time being.</p><p>"Almost did, hehe!" She stretched her arms up with a happy little whine. "The secret bathroom has a big bathtub and Eda doesn't let me use it unless she's in a really<em> really</em> good mood." She had a hand perched under her chin with a sneaky little smile on her lips, clearly proud of her feats. "I took a bubble bath and it felt <em>amazing</em>."</p><p>Blight was pinning her with a murderously intense look that clearly said, '<em>I will have her show me this place if it's the last thing I do.'</em></p><p>"Ooh, nom-noms!" Luz jumped back up momentarily to grab and open the discarded pack of biscuits and offered some to Amity as the witch sat down on the couch, keeping a perhaps overly respectable distance which Luz immediately closed when she plunked back into place.</p><p>"There's more in the kitchen if you want it." Noceda offered. The younger teen nodded in thanks and was making quick work of the biscuits while Amity nibbled on one of her own.</p><p>"So we have a lot of stuff to sift through. Though I'm gonna be keeping an eye out for Eda's filtering spell first." Noceda leaned back and stretched her arms over the back of the couch. "We need to get you set up with that soon, Luz."</p><p>Blight groaned from her place and stretched out almost cat-like. "Can't we just like, take a day? Maybe just relax and get back to all the heroics tomorrow."</p><p>"<em>You</em> can relax if you want, I'm going to be looking for that spell. And when I find it I hope you'll be on top of it, Blight." The older witch stuck her tongue out and Noceda ignored her in favour of squaring up Luz and Amity.</p><p>"I'm planning on gathering all of Eda's research stuff in here, there's a lot of it in her room and I could use some help bringing it down."</p><p>Luz had finished her snack and hopped back up again. "Yes, absolutely I'll help!" She chirped as she bounced into the kitchen for more fuel, perhaps a late lunch. "And we're gonna want to keep an eye out for clues that might tell us where she is!" She yelled from the other room.</p><p>"Since we're already going to be checking for Willow and anyone else we know, maybe we should swing by Hexside and see what we can find?" Amity suggested. Noceda was about to mention how they would have to be careful regarding their trip to Bonesborough when-</p><p>"WOAH! THAT'S SO GROSS!" Luz yelled suddenly from the kitchen. She didn't sound panicked, so Noceda didn't quite feel the need to jump up or anything but decided to play it safe at least, "You alright in there kid?" She called out.</p><p>"You should see the inside of Eda's fridge! It's <strong>horrifying </strong>in there! Oh god ack-" She immediately started gagging and choking while somehow managing to laugh at the same time. Blight shot up and reflexively clamped a hand over her nose, her eyes were blazing with fury.</p><p>"I'm gonna <em>kill</em> her." She snarled. Noceda immediately jumped up and dashed for the kitchen to catch a glimpse of the contents before Blight threw the entire refrigerator out the window or something.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>It was starting to get dark out and more candles and lights were flickering to life around the grand house to compensate for the sun disappearing and painting the sky in a fantastic swirl of muted colours.</p><p>Luz was lying on the small couch basically shattered after being forced to bring pretty much everything remotely related to Eda's research from her nestroom to the living room downstairs by herself. She also sported a raised lump on the back of her head where Blight had knocked her one for flooding the house with a noxious cloud of rotten food and ingredient smells. Amity had initially protested but then to Noceda's amusement, fully condoned it after the stench hit her as well.</p><p>Blight had decided to join Noceda on the first dive into the research despite her earlier complaints, and currently had several stacks of books and some papers organized by subject arranged around her. She had a few scrolls laid out where she was taking notes of her own. Amity had seemed quite interested in helping out and her initial forays into the huge mess appeared to be a systematic culling of anything that wasn't relevant.</p><p>Noceda was relieved that the two of them seemed eager to go through the research with her since quite frankly, there were limits to her magical understanding that either witch would be able to out-pace by multitudes. Noceda had aimed for the Owl House in hopes that she could find something useful, and since Blight had joined her she had even higher hopes that the witch would help her with the research. But it was never a guarantee. Seeing the two of them here with her, scanning papers with comprehension and taking notes... it really made the effort to get here seem like it was going to be worth something after all.</p><p><em>Maybe it's the schoolgirl in them crying out for some normalcy. Whatever it is, I'll take it. </em>She thought wryly to herself.</p><p>Noceda had taken a bit of time to putter around the mostly aired-out kitchen and come up with some actually serviceable meals for them all. She'd delivered a plate of dinner to the pair of hard-working witches and poked Luz to see if she was alive enough to have some as well.</p><p>She was just about to grab the other two plates of food off the kitchen table when she saw something outside the large window that was illuminated by the last of the sun's fading rays and the light pouring out of the kitchen. Not far enough from the house to be obscured by the shadows... stood a boar demon. It was looking right at her and she could hear it's raspy growling coming from the opened window they'd left ajar to help vent the horrid smell from the fridge.</p><p>She could feel the ice climbing up and down her veins and the ambient sounds of the house started to fade into a sort of static. But just as the demon started to charge, it suddenly disappeared. Noceda blinked several times, trying desperately to regain her faculties, when a loud set of thumps and shocked yelps sounded from the living room.</p><p>She shook her head rigorously and ran back to the other room where she could hear a <em>very</em> strange series of noises coming from outside the front door and saw Luz backing away from one of the stained-glass windows looking rather like she was going to be sick. Blight was behind her and so focused on what was going on out there that she didn't react when the young human accidentally backed into her. Luz did however have enough sense to grasp Amity by the wrist and pull her to sit down on the smaller of the two couches before the younger witch could go see what was happening for herself.</p><p>Noceda cautiously went over to Blight, who looked at her with an expression that was difficult to read, even for her. She blew a breath out with her cheeks and said, "You know Noceda, given the shit we've seen, this might actually be helpful to you."</p><p>With exceeding caution, Noceda peered out the window and saw the utterly broken form of the demon she'd seen from the kitchen. It looked like Hooty had grabbed it and dragged the large body underground through a tunnel that was no wider than, well, Hooty, and the house demon was working the whole bleeding mess down his throat like a snake.</p><p>
  <em>Welp. There goes my appetite for about two days.</em>
</p><p>With a shudder, Noceda picked her way around the piles of books and papers and reclaimed her earlier seat on the couch, joined shortly after by Blight who looked both disgusted and fascinated at the same time.</p><p>"<strong>Alright</strong>, so," Noceda decided to talk if only to cover up the noises coming from the other side of the door.</p><p>"Hopefully this is everything," She gestured to the huge assortment of books, journals, loose papers and other various items piled on and around the low coffee table. "I'm going to keep going through it for a while but if you guys want to go catch some shut-eye feel free to use my room." She directed that last part to Luz and Amity who quickly went from shooting the door nervous glances to full attention.</p><p>"You said Eda was doing an experiment and it back-fired, right? Can you tell us more about it? We should share all of the details if we're going to try and find her." Luz asked from her cross-legged perch on the couch.</p><p>"And many of these notes were written by Lilith," Amity added. "I think it would be a very good idea to try and find her as well."</p><p>Noceda suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She could see Blight tense from her spot on the floor surrounded by her moat of research and look over at her cautiously.</p><p>Noceda had already told Blight what happened that day but it was still just as painful to bring it up again. She hadn't wanted to talk about it but it was true that the younger teens would need to know everything if they were going to be working as a team on this.</p><p>
  <em>May as well rip off the band-aid then.</em>
</p><p>"Lilith didn't make it." She said finally. The silence was deafening. She didn't need to see the looks on the younger teens' faces to know they were very upset by the news, and she already knew that Blight had been hurt badly when she found out. She and Lilith may have had their falling out after that fiasco of a witch's duel she and Noceda had way back when, but Lilith was still her mentor and they had history.</p><p>"Can you tell us what happened to her?" Luz prompted gently. Noceda looked up at her to see the sympathy and compassion in her eyes.</p><p>It took a while for her to gather her thoughts. "I've told you that Eda was doing an experiment, and that it back-fired." She took a deep breath to try and steady her nerves. "Thing is, she was performing that experiment on Lilith."</p><p>"Eda's experiment... it killed her?" Luz's voice was uncomfortably soft.</p><p>"No." Noceda shifted forward to lace her fingers together. Her throat was getting a bit tight and she needed a moment to swallow down the emotion before she could continue. <em>This is tougher than I thought it would be.</em>  "That part was my fault."</p><p>Both younger teens were trained on her intensely, and Blight stood up to sit next to her although the older witch didn't interrupt.</p><p>"Eda took off right after it happened. I don't know what state she was in because I was upstairs at the time and she was gone by the time I got down here. I found Lilith though. She was so weak... I tried to get her stable, but she had no magic and I didn't know what to do." She tried to blink around the image of Lilith, deathly pale and barely able to move, while she lay confined in the guestroom after the disastrous failure.</p><p>"She wasn't getting any better, and the next day I was heading over to Bonesborough for help. I think I tripped or something and I fell down the side of the path like a useless sack of rocks. No one knew I was down there, and I was in too much pain to move. Couldn't call for help." Noceda could hear someone sniffling but didn't want to look up in case she were to break down too.</p><p>"Eventually... I died. Felt like it took forever. Don't know if it was blood loss or exposure or something..." She grasped at words for a moment. "But then I woke up. Used the first life from my curse. It took me a while to understand what had happened and get back up to the main path but when I made it back to Eda's... Lilith was already gone." Noceda could feel herself trembling, but pushed on before she lost her ability to talk.</p><p>"Digging that hole and burying Eda's sister was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I nearly threw myself in there with her. I basically abandoned her. Death by stupidity." She clenched her jaw shut. She didn't think she could say another word.</p><p>"That's not your fault!" Luz cried out, "It was an accident!" Her kind hazel eyes were so sympathetic and <em>so </em>desperate to believe it.</p><p>Noceda gave her a hard look though, which subdued the younger teen but they both knew Luz was right. That didn't make it even a little bit better as far as Noceda was concerned. That guilt would likely stick with her forever.</p><p>"Without any magic, I'm not sure if Lilith would have survived anyways." Blight said in a stiff tone. "Who knows exactly what the owl lady did to her." Noceda frowned at that. She was fine to dump the blame on herself but she was still sensitive of any criticism Eda might get from their analysis. She didn't <em>want</em> Eda to be at fault in any way. She was trying to help.</p><p>"Well, that's something we're going to find out." Luz jumped in suddenly. Noceda looked up at her and into those passionate eyes.</p><p>Luz wasn't finished. "Somewhere in all this," She gestured vaguely to all the papers and books scattered all over the room, "We're going to find some answers. We know Eda wouldn't hurt Lilith on purpose so there has to be a good reason why they were trying something so dangerous. We need to find out what exactly she was trying to do and why."</p><p>Amity seemed spurred along with Luz's energy and she weighed in as well. "And we'll be checking for clues to where she might be. Between all this stuff here and whatever we find in Bonesborough, there has to be something that can help lead us to her."</p><p>Noceda pinched the bridge of her nose, hard. She hoped that the gesture looked like she was trying to fend off a headache rather than clandestinely wipe away the moisture building in the corners of her eyes.</p><p>"I'm so sorry you two got dragged into all of this. I'm really thankful for your help." She cleared her throat and looked up to the two kids who had been pulled into this world with no idea as to why and managed to rise to the challenges that had been thrown at them so far. "And I'll do anything I can to help you guys find a way back to your world too."</p><p>Luz's eyes were misty and her chest was swelling up. Noceda knew what was coming but didn't try to stop her this time. The younger teen bounded over to her and wrapped her up in a fierce hug. Then she invited Amity over and Noceda smirked and nabbed Blight by the arm before she could even think of moving away.</p><p>It might be a bit cheesy, but she really felt like they all needed that hug.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>A couple hours later Noceda had told Luz and Amity to get some sleep.</p><p><em>"This mess isn't going anywhere and you guys can be up bright and annoyingly cheerful in the morning."</em>  She'd said with fond humour.</p><p>Luz was trying to gently prod Amity away from her piles before she yawned them right over, and although Noceda seemed to be attempting to get Blight to turn in for the night, she dug in her heels and said she'd be sleeping in the living room. <em>"I'm not taking my eyes off that house demon,"</em>  she'd retorted and her tone brooked zero argument.</p><p>Getting ready for bed in the familiar bathroom that was also just dissimilar enough to never quite be forgotten was a strange feeling to Luz. The differences reminded her of just how comfortable and how much she had come to love the Owl House and everyone in it... How she had come to consider it <em>home</em>. Which made it all the more confusing and upsetting when she had to shove the thoughts of her 'real' home in the Human Realm deep into a closet in her mind so she wouldn't start questioning herself when she had to stay alert and focused on all the tasks at hand.</p><p><em>One world removed at a time, alright?  </em>Luz promised herself.</p><p>She finished brushing her teeth and bid Hooty a good night who was staring in from the window, perfectly silent.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Please Sir, I want some LOAR - Part 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This one is pretty long and crazy, even for me.<br/>Buckle up.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Amity sleepily blinked her eyes open, slowly adjusting to the morning rays pouring into the room.</p><p>She was lying on her side still tucked into her sleeping bag with one arm stretched out and hand resting on the floor to nearly meet Luz's mirrored form a few feet away. Her whole world narrowed down to this moment, and Amity felt her smile lift up her whole face as she was just content to watch the slumbering human.</p><p>Some of the fingers on Luz's outstretched hand twitched ever so slightly which drew Amity's attention. They were so close to touching, it looked like they had been reaching for each other <em>and oh gosh she was gently interlacing their fingers together.</em></p><p>Amity just knew she had the dopiest smile on and although Luz was still sleeping she has a little smile on her lips as well. She ran her thumb over the tips of Luz's fingers and marvelled in the tiny textural differences between soft skin and blunt nail. Her heartbeat was picking up the closer to full wakefulness she got and she shifted her gaze just slightly to take in Luz's face once more before she lost the courage of mostly-consciousness. Luz's smile was a little bit wider now. Too wide, her soft grin was showing her biting her lower lip ever so gently.</p><p>Amity's eyes widened and she whispered, "Luz." As she had suspected, Luz scrunched one eye and opened the other to look at her, her grin turned guilty at being caught awake.  "-tickles." She murmured.</p><p>Amity could feel her ears going red. "You should have told me you were awake," she chastised with giddiness. Luz looked like she wanted to giggle and replied, "But you were being so cute." She curled her fingers and held Amity's nails against her warm palm, poking their thumbs together playfully. Amity's stomach was doing little swoops at being the sole target of those kind hazel eyes<em>.</em></p><p>She held on to the moment for as long as her heart could take and then she smoothly transitioned out of their digital embrace with a stretch and a grateful inhaling of the sun-warmed air. Luz copied her but with a much wider stretch and breathing in deeply enough to actually cough a bit.</p><p>They took turns in the nearby washroom and shortly Luz was bounding down the stairs with all the morning energy expected of her. Amity stifled a dopey giggle and followed.</p><p>"Good morning everyone!" Luz cheered the moment she hit the living room.</p><p>"Hey." Blight said from her spot on the floor, looking very focused on her latest set of scrolls and notes fanning out around her. Amity could hear Noceda moving around in the kitchen, and before she could fully determine her as the source of humming, the older teen broke out into song.</p><p>"Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down~," Amity thought Luz would burst as Noceda actually came <em>swishing</em> in to the living room balancing three plates of food and a healing glyph tucked between her fingers, <em>singing. </em>She was finding spots for everyone's breakfast on the couch, table and stack of books in Blight's case to the timing of her lyrics. "~Makes the medicine go <em>down</em>," She had a very nice voice and as her tone deepened for some of the words even Blight slowly looked up from her work with an utterly baffled expression. "~Makes the medicine go down."</p><p>Amity didn't know where to look as Luz joined in, clearly knowing the human song, and Noceda stood behind Blight who craned her neck up to blink at the older human singing down at her. "Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down,~"</p><p>Plates distributed, she placed the little slip of paper with a healing glyph drawn on it to Blight's forehead just above her eyes. She cupped her hands on either side of the witch's head over her ears, and leaned down, tapping the glyph with her forehead and activating it's healing magic. "In the most delightful way~." She and Luz finished singing with flourish. The pale golden light twinkled merrily between them before she stood back up.</p><p>"Get it while it's hot." Noceda said cheerfully and headed back into the kitchen presumably to get her own plate. Blight was frozen in place, her lips parted slightly in surprise likely from the sudden serenading and the effects of the glyph.</p><p>Luz let out a series of excited giggles and hugged Amity briefly but tightly, leaving her just as stunned, and then the unfathomable human trotted over to the smaller couch and grabbed up the offered plate of breakfast and dug in with enthusiasm. By the time Noceda had wandered back in with a plate of her own Amity had floated over beside Luz in a daze and retrieved the last plate from the table.</p><p>"Thanks Noceda! This is great." Luz managed between bites. Amity echoed the sentiment and began eating as well and she saw Blight mouth the words, "oh wow" from her cross-legged spot on the floor. She had a pen gripped in her right hand and was staring out into space. After a few bites of food, Noceda swallowed and turned towards Amity and Luz.</p><p>"So Luz," Noceda's voice was decidedly proud and twirled her fork in the air at the younger teen, "I found your filtering spell."</p><p>Luz perked up and hastily finished chewing while Noceda continued with another twirl of her fork to point at Blight. "Blight is working to recreate it right now."</p><p>The older witch had gingerly taken up her plate and began eating, not looking at any of them and blushing right to her ear-tips. Somewhere in the back of Amity's head she thought, <em>these two will be the death of us.</em></p><p>"Wow, thanks you guys! It'll be nice to know that I can <em>breathe easy</em> once that's all figured out." She shot off finger guns with the fork and plate still in her hands at the wordplay, which Noceda rolled her eyes at with a smirk while wolfing down the rest of her food.</p><p>"Oh yeah! And I found a baseball bat last night in your room, I'll go bring it down!"  Luz jumped up and took off down the hallway, clearly having a huge excess of energy to burn. Amity could hear her basically galloping all the way up the stairs.</p><p>Amity took another few mouthfuls of her breakfast and felt some of the incredibly positive energy seeping in to her. "I take it everyone slept well?" She asked with a small smile.</p><p>"I know I did," Noceda patted her stomach and leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes for a moment. "Don't know about her though, she's always on high alert and up with the sun."</p><p>Blight was chewing thoughtfully and cocked an eyebrow at Noceda, then shrugged in Amity's direction with a hastily thrown-together air of unaffectedness.</p><p>"I slept just fine." Was all she said and then continued to eat. Something about the way her posture had straightened and her bites became delicate reminded Amity of her older sister very strongly just then. She found the comparison mostly kind of funny although a part of her did long to see her sibling again. <em>I'm actually starting to miss Emira and Edric. The world really is ending.</em></p><p>Luz pounded back down the stairs just then and came in to the room holding a worn but tough-looking metal bat with a few dents in it and the wrapping around the handle partly unravelled.</p><p>"Oh hey, I remember this guy!" Noceda accepted the bat and held it up. She looked like she was fondly recalling memories of hammering away at enemies with the old thing. "Yeah, I can work with this for now."</p><p>The generally cheerful and upbeat atmosphere lasted all morning and well into the afternoon.  It was windy outside but it looked like a nice day otherwise.</p><p>They were taking turns using Eda's washing machine to rejuvenate all their clothes and during the long periods in-between, Amity had retaken up her spot from yesterday and was right in the research fray with the older teens. Luz had been wandering around the deceptively large house looking for anything useful to bring with them, and any clues that might point them in Eda's direction.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Amity placed her pencil on the low coffee table and stretched her legs out underneath, pushing her head into the front of the couch behind her. She collapsed somewhat bonelessly for a moment and rested her eyes. She's been looking through papers and book-marked passages for hours. It was kind of fun trying to piece together a great mystery and all, but there were just <em>so many </em>things contained in these books and theories that were out of her depth.</p><p>"I feel like I'm going around in circles." She said aloud. "We know that there's something wrong with the titan's magic but I keep finding things in Eda and Lilith's writing that makes it sound like the problem isn't the magic itself."</p><p>"Which doesn't make sense because we know it's poisoning us." Blight grumbled with her pen hanging from her mouth, squinting at yet another scroll with Eda's scrawling text on it. "We use magic, and it corrupts us after a little while. The more magic we use the more it corrupts. Nothing else could be doing that."</p><p>Noceda chimed in from her spot on the larger couch. "Thing is, we have so much stuff here leading up to this draining spell they were working on, but I don't get how that's supposed to help."</p><p>Amity quickly recalled what they had theorized regarding the spell that seemed to be capable of removing all of the magical energy from one source and placing it into the user. Noceda continued, "If the magic is poisonous, why would you intentionally <em>try</em> to take it?"</p><p>"And better question, why leave someone so vulnerable?" Blight perched her chin in her hand and her elbow on her stack of books. "Since we're pretty sure the draining spell is what Eda used on Lilith, we know that it leaves a witch practically dead once it's completed."</p><p>Amity pursed her lips in thought. "Maybe she didn't know it would leave Lilith so weak?"</p><p>Noceda sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "She must have, her curse would leave her with so little magic at times that she would collapse. And she told me once that having no magic at all would let her curse take over entirely. She had to have known how dangerous that would be for Lilith."</p><p>They were quiet for a few moments. Amity made a note to look more into the effects of curses and their effects on a witch's physical self as a whole. She wondered what Luz was doing right at that second.</p><p>"Explain to me again how the internal flow of magic works for a witch." Noceda asked the room in general.</p><p>Blight gestured to Amity and she did her best to recall and condense what she had learned in Magic 101. "When a witch uses a spell to perform magic, they use up a portion of their reservoir of magic bile to control the flow of energy that is all around us and given off from the body of the Titan."</p><p>"Okay," Noceda squinted at the ceiling as she replied, "And what happens after you've used some of that stuff up? You get it back somehow, right?"</p><p>Amity felt just a teeny bit self-conscious while she broke down some simple anatomy for the human. "Um.. a witch's magic bile will naturally be produced by the body over time, replenishing a witch to their full magical potential." She cleared her throat before continuing. "Training can also help increase the size of your bile sac and increase your control over how the energy is being used."</p><p>Blight suddenly jumped in with a mockingly nasal voice and a wave of her fingers, "Strength and Finesse~!"</p><p>Amity bit her lip to keep from laughing. <em>She does a pretty good impression of the Magicks Foundations professor.</em> Noceda didn't seem to notice the little interjection.</p><p>"So... when you use your magic, bile is consumed and you're directing the energy of the Titan into a specific pattern... a spell." Noceda looked at her for confirmation. Amity nodded. "And at some point later, there is a warping effect on the witch who used their magic."</p><p>"And demons." Blight added. "Whether or not they're witches. Just existing and using their natural magic abilities screws them up just the same."</p><p>Noceda groaned and slumped down on her couch. "But it's also been affecting plants and animals. Which doesn't make sense. Animals and plants don't use magic."</p><p>"Not actively," Blight seemed to appraise in her slouched form. "But most things on the island are made from the Titan's body in some way or other. If everything is poisonous then I guess that makes sense? It would travel up the food chain."</p><p>Amity snorted in frustration. "Which then brings me back to 'how can the problem not be the magic itself'." She gestured vaguely at an empty plate near Noceda. "If everything is poisonous then how come you're not affected by it? You eat and touch things but you're fine. And I don't get why glyphs don't seem to affect any of us. It's cast differently but it's still using magic!" <em>This is exasperating!</em></p><p>"There's also something I didn't consider before." Blight said thoughtfully, sitting up. "Not all reservoirs of magic became corrupt." She turned her head to scan around the big room. "We know that the magical artifacts Noceda and I have seen or picked up over time are holding uncorrupted magic. They're still pure. Like, I can feel the difference between the magic of this House as a giant artifact and the energy of that creepy house demon. The House's magic is fine and the demon's is.. icky." She finished, looking like she'd have preferred a different word to describe what she apparently observed on a much more intricate level than Amity could. Then she pointed to Amity. "Your magic was completely pure when you came here a few days ago, and it's feel mostly the same now." She got up and let herself right into Amity's personal space, placing a hand over her chest and closing her eyes while concentrating. Amity flushed a bit from the sudden contact but didn't interrupt.</p><p>"Yeah, see, your magic is mostly pure but I can feel a little bit of it has gone bad. You haven't had that bit long enough to really feel any effects from it yet but it's progressing just like any other witch here." Blight went back to plop back down into her spot but her words were rattling around in Amity's head. She clenched her fists and felt dread souring her stomach. <em>She can feel my magic corrupting already.</em></p><p>"Which means this has something to do with our Titan specifically, and being from another world isn't necessarily an immunity. Though being human seems to prevents corruption." Noceda continued, oblivious of Amity's increasing distraction.</p><p>The front door swung open and Luz stepped in, looking rather ruffled  from being outside in the wind. She had a large wicker basket hanging off her arm and it was filled with all sorts of items. Hooty was retracting into the door and it looked like he had been with her during her walk.</p><p>Noceda was too focused on her line of thought to really notice Luz's appearance. "Humans don't have a magic sac. Humans don't directly manipulate the Titan's energy. But witches and demons do, and they get corrupted." She held out a hand as she made her points, and then the other for the next ones. "Animals and plants here get corrupt, but they don't manipulate the Titan's energy either. So why don't humans corrupt like the plants and animals?"</p><p>Luz perched on the arm of the couch Amity was sitting on. "Maybe because we're from another world?" She asked.</p><p>Blight shook her head. "Amity isn't from this world and she's being affected like any witch here." Luz looked over at Amity and seemed to notice how unsettled she was. She hadn't meant to let the topic get to her, but she couldn't help dwelling on Blight's assessment of her own magic.</p><p>Luz piped up and held out her basket. "Hey why don't we take a break? I found a bunch of things growing in the storehouse. Some of it should be okay to eat right?" She tipped her basket to show them the various fruit and vegetable-looking items in it. Blight got up and wandered over to peer into the basket and picked one of the purple and orange gourd-looking things out. She wiped it on her nice clean shirt and then took a crunchy bite out of it.</p><p>Luz offered the basket over to Amity but she felt even more ill.</p><p>"But... if one of our theories is that all the plants are poisonous, doesn't that mean our food is too?" She knew she looked pale and curled her arms over her stomach.</p><p>"Yeah, probably. But it's a slow-drip at best. You'll just straight up die of starvation if you don't eat." Noceda pointed out matter-of-factly.</p><p>Luz waited and held her basket out patiently while Amity mulled over the good point. And she was kinda hungry actually, it had been a couple hours since they'd had lunch. She reached out and took what she recognized as a boisonapple, giving it a long look before tentatively taking a small bite out of its spongy flesh.</p><p>Luz got up and offered the basket to Noceda who took another of the fruit that Blight had chosen and started to eat it looking lost in thought. Amity sent Luz a little nod of thanks once she sat back down and picked out a boisonapple for herself. She looked delighted as she bit into it, enjoying the texture and taste if the happy little noise she made was any indication.</p><p>"Did you find anything else while you were picking these up?" Amity asked Luz, gesturing with her fruit. The other teen had been exploring the house since breakfast and apparently had been outside for a while as well. She wished that Luz could have told her she was going to be out there so she could have kept an eye and an ear out for trouble.</p><p><em>Then again that's probably why she didn't say anything to me. </em>Since neither Noceda nor Blight seemed at all surprised by her items from outdoors they must have known she was out there. Or they were too distracted to connect those particular dots.</p><p>"Well, let's see... Hooty was keeping me company while I was outside although he still hasn't said anything. And I think he's keeping the area clear of anything dangerous, he would suddenly head off every once in a while and come back, umm-" Amity raised a brow as Luz fumbled with her words for a moment, "uh, looking like he had fended off something dangerous." She finished lamely. Amity figured she didn't want to worry the rest of them. <em>She's so sweet.</em></p><p>"Also I found a bunch of notepads and stuff and there's a neat little box here that's super pretty but I can't get it open, uhh, some things from shed, oh and I couldn't get the sunroom door open so there's a room we haven't explored yet." Luz rocked eagerly as she listed off her accomplishments for the afternoon. "Oh! And I found a really big cage that has blankets and plushies and bowls for food and water. We don't have anything like that back at my Eda's."</p><p>Noceda wilted with the last bit of Luz's report. "Yeah, that was for King. He broke out and ran away a just before Eda and Lilith started ramping up their experiments. He was difficult to be around." Amity gave her a sympathetic look that she didn't see and then glanced at Luz who looked disheartened at the news. She murmured out a little apology which the older teen waved off.</p><p>"We're here to find this stuff out, Luz. You did good." Noceda's voice didn't sound very enthusiastic to Amity but she did sound genuine. Luz perked up with the compliment.</p><p>"I'm guessing you didn't see Owlbert anywhere?" Noceda asked, though she didn't seem very hopeful given that Luz had no staff with her.</p><p>"No. You said you weren't sure if Eda took him or not, right?" She responded. Amity looked at Noceda as she nodded. She had told them yesterday that she was upstairs when Eda had left right after the failed experiment, but at the time Noceda wouldn't have been looking for the owl lady's palisman. And Amity knew enough about witch's familiars to know that they could operate on their own when they wanted to. Even if Eda had been incapable of bringing her staff when she fled, it didn't mean that her palisman wouldn't have simply followed her. In fact, it was very likely since a witch's familiar was bonded to their maker.</p><p> </p><p>After some time Blight switched from her researching to looking over Eda's filtering spell again. She invited Amity to work on her illusory fire while she was right there in 'study mode' as she put it. They were mostly practising the magic on a theoretical level and Amity thought she might be getting the hang of it and asked Blight if she could try lighting the next campfire they would use. The older witch had shrugged and didn't seem to have any issue with it. It was nearly evening when Noceda got up to make food and asked Luz if she wanted some cooking lessons. When they came back around bearing sustenance and everyone was taking a break to eat at the same time (mostly, Blight was still going at it with the filtering spell), Noceda deemed it a good time to bring up plans for tomorrow.</p><p>"So," She started around a mouthful of food, "Tomorrow we can-"</p><p>"Do you always make the meals? I never see Blight cook." Luz belatedly flinched and sent Noceda a sheepish look for interrupting. "Sorry, hehe.."</p><p>Noceda was giving her the same sort of look one might give to a small child with sensitive feelings but before she could say anything Blight responded around her own bite, "I'd just eat it raw."</p><p>Amity felt her stomach do an unimpressed little twist at the thought and Noceda just waved in her direction. "That's why. She kills it I cook it."</p><p>"Anyways," She raised an eyebrow at Luz who dug into her food as a way of showing her compliance, "We wanna leave for Bonesborough tomorrow fairly early. It's a good five or six hours away by foot and we want to give ourselves plenty of time to scope out a place to hole up for the night or two we'll be down there."</p><p>Amity considered the statement. Luz had mentioned to her that she thought the island seemed bigger than the Boiling Isles but it didn't seem that way to Amity. Many landmarks and the one town they'd been through seemed incredibly similar but the topography of the islands did appear to be different in places. She'd made the trip to the Owl House several times in their dimension and it took maybe an hour or so to get there from Bonesborough Market. Perhaps it was from the effects of the huge volcano this island had?</p><p>Noceda continued suggesting their plan. "We're there mainly to check in with Willow and see if we can get any leads on anyone from your guys' world that might be here and whatever anyone may have on Eda. If it's not too wonky in there I'd also like to drop in on our friend Viney and see if she's still kickin' around. She helped me with the basic Healing glyph we use."</p><p>"However," She motioned with her fork at Luz and Amity. "Me and Blight haven't been through a major city in months, so it's entirely likely the whole city is really messed up. We're going to need to keep our visit brief and to the point in case the general populace is too aggressive to be dealt with." She said seriously.</p><p>"Did you two leave Bonesborough together? Where did you even go?" Luz asked suddenly, and Amity straightened to attention with interest. She had been curious about that too, although she recalled Blight saying something before about 'finding her in Las Pelvis" so she had her doubts that the two had been together the whole time.</p><p>"Uhh.. I'm pretty sure Blight left before I did. We met up later." Noceda glanced over at the older witch who just continued practising the motions for her spell. "We'll leave that story for another time though." Her voice was light but firm.</p><p>"I've been wondering though.. you said you two have been travelling together for months. How come you weren't together when we were portalled here?" Amity asked.  Noceda chuckled at that and simply replied, "Oh that's easy. We were pissing each other off and needed a break." Amity saw Blight smirk from her position on the couch but seemed to be too embroiled in her studying to engage further.</p><p>After they had shared a few more notes about their trip tomorrow, Luz spread out more of the items she'd found and things she'd seen that could possibly be helpful. Blight seemed to take an interest in the little decorated box Luz had found but couldn't get open and asked if she could take it. Amity thought it was adorable how happy it made Luz to find something that interested the older witch.</p><p>Eventually as it started getting darker Blight had mentioned that she was pretty sure she had a grasp on the filtering spell and would attempt to set it on Luz before they left for Bonesborough. Not too long after she wandered away did Luz figure it was a good time to take a nice long break and prodded Amity to get away from her books and scrolls for a little while. Noceda waved them off with a friendly quirk of her lips and was left in the living room to her own devices.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Noceda looked up from the long scroll of notes that Blight had written detailing her theories on different sources of magic that were or were not affected by corruption. At the sound of a small rustling by her foot, she peered down and there was a tiny origami abomination staring up at her from the floor.</p><p>She quirked her lips. "That's a neat trick." The abomigami waved its little paper arm at her in a curling sort of gesture and then started shuffling off, looking back at her and repeating the waving motion.</p><p>"You want me to follow you?"</p><p>It tottered across the floor and out into the hall, Noceda following with a little smirk. It led her past a few doors and closets she knew well, everything was bathed in a warm golden glow from the house lights that had flickered on once it became dark enough outside.</p><p>They came to the end of the hall which just showed a large familiar painting of an owl flaring its wings against the moon. Noceda looked down at the little abomigami and it was gesturing at the painting.</p><p>"Not sure what you're trying to show me." She chuckled down at it.</p><p>It lifted its little paper arms and started hopping, looking very much like a child asking, "up! up!" so Noceda kneeled down and held her hand out. Sure enough it climbed into her palm and started hopping again. She rose back up and those tiny paper arms appeared to be grasping for the painting. Noceda brought it closer and it indicated for her to move her hand down and to the right, nearly at the corner of the painting where some stylized trees were.</p><p>It was tapping the place where one of the branches was noticeably more spiral than the others and looking up at her. With a curious smile, Noceda tapped the middle of the spiral with her other hand's index finger. To her surprise the painting began to peel away from the wall at the top and as she backed up slowly, it folded and bent itself over until it had formed a little staircase. Where the painting had been was now a raised doorway.</p><p>"Huh." She remarked. This was a part of the house she hadn't seen before, and she was getting a pretty good idea now of what was going on. With the tiny paper passenger sitting on her hand, Noceda ascended the stairs and into a short hallway that bent sharply to the left and right.</p><p>Looking down the left passage she could see clean white tiles and could smell the perfumy aromas one would associate with a luxurious bath or spa perhaps. To the right, a dark purple curtain hung from the ceiling and a soft pinkish glow played on the walls around it. The abomigami was pointing that way with its little arm.</p><p>Noceda felt her stomach swoop a bit with nerves and she cautiously moved the curtain aside and entered the room.</p><p>Decorating the atmosphere were at least a dozen candles burning with bright magenta flames. The walls and ceiling were a calming sort of muted purple but it was difficult to tell what their actual colour was with the moody lighting. A huge flat sofa curled around the entire room, only breaking for the doorway and there was a low coffee table in the middle of it all.</p><p>Perched on the table in an alarmingly provocative outfit, of course, was Blight. She had also done herself up in full makeup complete with vivid eyeshadow and her nails appeared to be carefully rounded and painted.</p><p><em>I hope she didn't get that little number from Eda's closet or anything, </em>Noceda screwed her jaw shut and tightened her lips, beginning to shake with the effort to not start laughing. The green-haired witch's sultry expression and inviting pose immediately turned incredulous, which only made Noceda's efforts more difficult and she had to clamp the hand not carrying a tiny paper monster over her mouth to keep up.</p><p>"What's funny?" She practically squeaked, eyebrows nearly meeting her hairline.</p><p>"Nothing. It's very romantic." Noceda managed through gritted teeth.</p><p>Blight's head was swivelling around quickly trying to spot what was setting her off but she came back looking confused and a little bit dismayed.</p><p>With an astounding amount of strength Noceda composed herself and tipped the little paper abomination onto the back seat of the sofa. She took a few steps into the room and directed an amused smirk down at the witch now sitting awkwardly on her table. "You did all this for me?" Fondness was bleeding into her tone regardless of how amusing she found the whole situation.</p><p>Blight crossed her arms defensively and looked away, a blush creeping over her features and making her lethally adorable. "Well, I- I wanted to do something, to um... show you how sorry I was. About. You know." She waved irritably at Noceda in general.</p><p>Noceda closed the distance and crouched down in front of Blight, taking her warm hands up in her own and making sure to catch her gaze before she spoke.</p><p>"This is really sweet, Amity. Thank you." She was conveying as much warmth and reassurance as she possibly could, though Blight was still eyeing her with some suspicion. Finally though, she seemed convinced enough that her efforts were indeed appreciated and she cautiously picked Noceda's ever-present beanie off her head and dropped it behind her on the table. Then she tentatively reached out and traced a manicured finger along Noceda's shirt, just below the collar bone where underneath she knew the black mark of a vaguely feline creature was etched into her skin. The mark that had branded her when she first set the Nine-Lives curse on herself years ago.</p><p>"I really am sorry." Blight said so softly as to be little more than a whisper. She looked up at Noceda with a vulnerability that she so rarely showed, even to her.</p><p>Noceda grinned warmly at her. "You've set up a heck of an apology here. I'm sure I'll enjoy myself." That seemed to help set the witch's mind at ease a bit more.</p><p>Then her grin turned devilish. "In fact, I think I'll use up my points now."</p><p>Blight's eyes widened fractionally at the declaration and another blush ghosted over her cheeks. Noceda slipped her arms under her thighs and with a grunt, hefted her on to part of the sofa instead. She placed a hand on Blight's shoulder and gently pressed down, Blight obediently flopping back to lie out on the sofa with a delicately raised eyebrow at the wordless command.</p><p>"Bring out your hourglass." Noceda kicked off her shoes and climbed on the sofa to straddle the pale witch while Blight twirled a finger and produced a small glass timer filled with coloured sand.</p><p>Noceda plucked the little hourglass from Blight's fingers with a cocky expression to counter Blight's somewhat apprehensive but definitely interested one. "Should be enough for about three minutes." She said aloud, then flipped it upside down and the sand changed to a lighter colour while it started to filter down into the bottom half.</p><p>She placed the timer on the table and Blight asked in a voice that suggested she was trying for 'unaffected' but didn't quite get there.</p><p>"Your terms?" Those golden eyes were locked on Noceda's face.</p><p>Noceda reached up and placed Blight's wrists over her head and drew a finger over the sensitive pulse of one of them. "You'll leave these here." She sat back slowly and admired the witch on display under her in her fancy outfit and lowered her voice further, "You won't move."</p><p>Blight narrowed her eyes a bit but they darkened somewhat with interest. Her mouth parted and she was probably going to say something meant to tip Noceda off her high horse but she placed a finger over those full lips, stilling her.</p><p>"And no talking." Noceda finished, letting her voice go as husky as she dared. She grinned down at Blight and soaked in the waves of emotion rolling off of her, enjoying the storm of conflicting little motions and counter motions her body was going through while restrained by nothing more than her own will.</p><p>After a long moment they locked gazes. Blight laid out on her back, completely vulnerable, and Noceda perched atop her with a smug look. She tipped her chin at the green-haired witch.</p><p>"How're you doing down there." Noceda asked evenly. Blight took a deep breath, filling out her chest and upper body pleasantly, and let it out carefully. She nodded slowly, and Noceda felt her stomach do a few giddy little flips at the trust she could see in those golden eyes.</p><p>Noceda leaned over and gently explored her way up; Fingers and lips tracing over smooth pale skin, ritzy dress material and the occasional raised texture of scar tissue. She appreciated just how gorgeous the witch was and how little her outward appearance told of the danger she could, and did, present. She noticed Blight's fingers twitching with her efforts to remain relaxed. "Yeah, flex those claws baby." She teased with a drawl.</p><p>Soft pale skin hid the powerful compact muscle and hard bones of a witch, and deeper inside a core of magical potency the likes of which Noceda may never fully understand. When she reached those eyes, so focused and excited yet calm, Noceda could just drown in the memories of all their experiences together; The good and the bad.</p><p>She ran her calloused thumbs along Blight's high cheekbones. They had gone through an awful lot of pain together, and their world was only getting worse. More dangerous. Sometimes they drove each other crazy. Their arguments had come to blows many times in the past.</p><p>She admired Blight's painted lips. Her lower lip was trembling just slightly from her endeavors to keep still and quiet. Noceda could remember back in those first few weeks when they were twisted into a seemingly permanent state of pain, or anger. She bore her fangs almost constantly, and her lips were usually chapped and bleeding because of it.</p><p>
  <em>I brought you back, and I'll never let you go through that hell ever again.</em>
</p><p>With a final glance at those golden eyes, relaxed and almost loving, Noceda gave her the warmest smile she could possibly bear and pressed her lips to Blight's in a gentle kiss. Normally she wouldn't be able to get away with such a subdued and drawn-out approach to their intimacy, but this moment of reflection was important to Noceda. And she believed strongly that these moments were crucial to Blight, whether or not she knew it.</p><p>She waited out her last seconds just staring down and enjoying the reflection of the candles around them in her eyes. When the little hourglass behind them dropped the last grain of its ordered time period, it chimed softly.</p><p>"You're so sappy sometimes. What a waste of control." Blight's expression went to hungry and eager in seconds and Noceda wasn't at all surprised when the witch latched on to her upper arm and flipped them near effortlessly.</p><p>"Worth it." Was all Noceda would add to her lop-sided grin as she looked up at Blight, back-lit by her own magical fire and as fierce and beautiful as ever.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Luz was poking around Noceda's room and going through basically everything while she went on about whatever floated through her head at that moment. Amity had been half-listening while she went over some notes that she'd brought upstairs with her.</p><p>She decided to give her eyes a break for a little while and pulled her sleeping bag away from her notes and the correspondence documents that Lilith had jotted things down on. This stuff was beginning to make her head spin. Her old mentor (or rather, Blight's old mentor) kept bringing attention to the words 'day of Unity', but she couldn't find anything to detail what that was supposed to be.</p><p>
  <em>Take a <strong>break.</strong> You're no use to anyone burned out.</em>
</p><p>While Luz chattered on Amity kept half an ear on her to respond where appropriate and she rifled through her witch's bag until she found her overnight kit. She pulled out a little bottle of black nail laminator and set it down while she took a good look at her nails.</p><p>Her laminate was chipped and scratched away in many places, a testament to the rough past few days. She had always been rather proud of her manicuring standards and make-up. Since they had been at the Owl House for over a day now and they had all put in a lot of work regarding the research and clue-hunting, she finally figured she could take a few moments to indulge herself.</p><p>Amity smiled to herself and picked up the little glass bottle, unscrewing the top and pulling out the tiny wand attached to it. She spread her left hand out in front of her and tapped the end of the wand to one of her nails. The wand glowed black and then the glow separated from the wand and settled onto her nail, replenishing and fixing the laminated sheen until it was a perfect shell of black again.</p><p><em>Hmm. Maybe change it up a bit.</em> She picked up the bottle and dipped the wand back in, swirling it although there didn't appear to be anything in the bottle to swirl. She didn't put the bottle down and turned her hand slightly so that her thumb was facing her. She tapped her thumbnail, and a dark purple glow lifted off of the wand instead, rejuvenating the scratched up black coat and turning it into a shiny dark purple instead.</p><p>She gave the result a little frown. <em>Kind of reminds me of a bruise though. Maybe some other time. </em>She swirled the little wand in the bottle again and placed it back on the floor, spreading her fingers out again and letting her mini artifact replenish the spell for each nail in turn. In seconds each one was shiny and black again and she felt refreshed just looking at it.</p><p>Luz lying on the floor right in front of her, transfixed by her habitual upkeep.</p><p>She wasn't quite startled but she hadn't noticed Luz quiet down or really taken note of her as she came to rest. Her chin was on her crossed arms and she looked up at Amity with a cute little smile.</p><p>
  <em>Titan I want to touch her hand again.</em>
</p><p>Amity fanned her left nails out for Luz to see and the girl smiled and of course uncrossed her arms to test the texture of Amity's nail with the pad of her own finger. She giggled.</p><p>"It's just like nail polish. But ours takes a while to dry, and you have to paint it on."</p><p>Painting on ones nails sounded odd but also kind of nice to Amity. She flipped her hand over and now she cradled Luz's outstretched fingers with her own. "Want me to do yours?" She asked calmly. Inside of course she was ecstatically patting herself on the back for actually initiating!</p><p>Luz pursed her lips in thought (so cute!) but shook her head a bit. "Hmm, I think it looks better on you." Amity let her expression get a bit playful and she asked sweetly, "Are you <em>sure?</em> We could match."</p><p>Luz glanced back to their still-touching fingers and gently took her bottom lip between her teeth in that adorable way Amity loved so much. She looked back up again and curled her fingers until only the pinkie was left.</p><p>"Maybe just this one. To know what it feels like."</p><p>Feeling a bit giddy, Amity raised the little wand and gently tapped Luz's pinkie. She seemed to shiver ever so slightly as the wand once again glowed black and it poured off to settle onto her nail, covering it in a thin layer of shiny dark laminate.</p><p>"It kinda felt like a little drop of cool water." She held her hand up close to her face and made to touch the new surface with her other hand. She stopped to check with Amity first though. "I can touch it right away?"</p><p>Amity nodded, smiling far wider than she wanted to but quite unable to stop. Luz had a small wondrous look as she inspected and tested the hardness of her little addition. Then she re-crossed her arms and settled her chin back on them, kicking her feet up slowly and watching as Amity finished doing the nails on her other hand.</p><p>Luz's eyes flicked up when Amity raised a considering hand to brush over the soft brown roots of her natural hair colour.</p><p>"Do you have a little wand for that too?" Her voice was getting a tiny bit lower, foretelling how close to getting sleepy she was. Amity shook her head and replied, "It's a spell." She perched on her elbows and looked away, thinking about what Blight had said earlier. "I don't think I'll use it right now though."</p><p>"Did you pick that colour because of Azura?" Luz asked innocently with perhaps a pinch of hopefulness. Amity 'hmmed', thinking about her mother's interest in keeping her children appearing as a matched set, one befitting of the Blight family name. Though when she had discovered her favourite book series, the colour had taken on a new meaning to her and she liked to make the association with the titular witch instead.</p><p>"Kinda." Was all she really felt like saying. She rose into a sitting position. She couldn't help but let her thoughts drag back to her magic. Every spell she used, even something as simple as a hair-colouring spell, it was all slowly adding up inside her. Blight could sense the difference... How long until <em>she</em> started to feel it too?</p><p>"You thinking about your magic going bad?" Luz asked, her gaze was soft with understanding. Amity felt a little knot in her throat but she worked past it. "Kinda, yeah." Her voice was pretty soft now. "Blight said she could feel some of my magic is already..." She trailed off.  Luz got up after a moment and went over to a small pile of glyphs she had been marking on fresh pieces of paper and came back over with a healing one. She sat down on the floor again, looking so welcoming with it between her fingers, asking without needing words. Amity straightened up, giving her full permission the same way.</p><p>Luz worried her lower lip again with a touch of inspiration in her eyes and she scooted forward, drawing in until they were knee to knee. Ever so cautiously, she lifted the little glyph to Amity's forehead, giving her plenty of time to decide if she wasn't ready for the magic to be used up there. She kept still and hoped that she was conveying her trust to Luz as clearly as she felt it.</p><p>She then felt Luz touch the paper to her forehead, leaving it there and slowly moving her hand away. Her face was moving closer and Amity realized what she was planning to do. She didn't even notice she was leaning forward as well, she was so lost in the face of the beautiful girl in front of her.</p><p>Just before soft tan skin met pale, the little glyph paper fluttered down past their cheeks. Amity blinked a couple times and then she couldn't help it... she giggled. This made Luz start giggling which made her giggle more and in seconds they were both giggling uncontrollably with their foreheads and noses brushing feather lightly together.</p><p>Amity knew she must be so red, but Luz was blushing too as she pulled away. Luz scratched at her cheek with a little embarrassment and murmured, "how about I try that again..."</p><p>She looked down and spotted the glyph paper, retrieving it with shy fingers and placed it once again against Amity's forehead, keeping it gently pinned in place with her finger. She looked like she was psyching herself up and then she closed in to press her lips to the glyph in the sweetest little kiss.</p><p>Amity's lips parted and her vision seemed to soften and fade; She knew her eyes were wide open but she could only make out a pale gold. There were the faintest impressions of movement, was it... dancing?</p><p>
  <em>I think I can hear music, but I would never have the words to describe it.</em>
</p><p>All too soon the light faded and she could see Luz's awestruck face. Amity didn't feel very different, but she did feel a bit lighter. Like she was free of a minor headache she didn't know she had.</p><p>"Think it worked this time?" Luz asked, shy hope laced throughout her voice. Amity nodded slowly. "That was really..." She didn't know how to finish. It was just so... <em>perfect.</em></p><p>She found herself wrapped up in a hug, and Luz was speaking softly in her ear.</p><p>"I'll always protect you Amity. I won't let anything hurt you."</p><p>Amity finally found her ability to move as she lifted her arms and returned the hug, feeling a couple tears run down her cheeks.</p><p>"Thank you Luz." She whispered back.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>The next morning found the two of them snuggled up quite comfortably against each other in their sleeping bags and despite both teens going red immediately, they found it difficult to actually pull apart.</p><p>Once they did finally make their way downstairs Luz was basically ambushed by Blight and told to sit on the big couch while she ran through the spell one last time in her head and both Noceda and Amity looked on with some apprehension.</p><p>Luz was tapping her foot in time with her jittering nerves. From what she could tell and what Blight and Noceda had indicated but not out-right said, was that the magic involved was some pretty complex spellweaving. It wasn't a particularly powerful spell or even required a lot of magical energy to use, but the permanent interaction of the spell and her lungs was ridiculously intricate.</p><p>"What if it-" Amity started but cut herself off and anxiously fiddled with her skirt. Luz was thankful she didn't finish that sentence and tried to keep her faith strong in the green-haired witch sitting in front of her on the low table. Amity had taken a look at the scroll detailing the spell's inner workings and how to cast it and she had outright blanched at the idea of trying to perform it. That hadn't exactly settled Luz's nerves and she now appreciated just how many hours Blight had taken to feel confident enough to set the spell in the first place.</p><p>Blight set the scroll down and focused on Luz. They were almost knee-to-knee although Luz's legs were basically vibrating with nervous energy. Even though the older witch resembled Amity in many ways, she was a lot more intimidating when those golden eyes were boring into her. <em>I wonder if Amity will ever have such an intense look to her all the time. </em>Luz tried for a little smile though it didn't put her at ease.</p><p>"Luz." She snapped to attention when Blight said her name. "Relax."</p><p>"You're gonna be fine kid, she's got this." Noceda chipped in from her spot next to Amity on the other couch. Luz nodded a couple times, mostly to herself, and took a few deep breaths in attempts to calm down. These would be her last breaths before her lungs were permanently altered and <em>oh geeze this was kind of a lot more scary than she thought it was going to be.</em></p><p>Blight lifted both her hands to hover somewhere near Luz's shoulder height and she took on an even deeper look of concentration. Luz couldn't help the nervous little trill she let out and joked, "D-don't take my breath away alright?"</p><p>The witch ignored her and twirled her right index finger, conjuring her signature pink spellcircle. Nothing happened for a moment and any extra labour to Luz breathing she chalked up to her nerves. When Blight twirled her left hand's index finger and a second spellcircle appears though Luz <em>knew</em> she was feeling something alien in her.</p><p>A slow coolness was creeping from her nose and mouth down her throat. She felt the very intense urge to sneeze. The tingly sensation was getting colder as it worked its way deeper inside and despite the usual warmth of the air around her she felt like she was inhaling a winter chill. It didn't hurt, but it was very unsettling.</p><p>"Breathe in, deeply, and hold it until I say." Blight spoke. Luz could hear her voice coming from in front of her an <em>inside her head</em> at the same time. She did as she was told.</p><p>After a moment but before she could feel light-headed, Blight told her to breathe out again and she let it all out in a whoosh. There was a sense of intense freshness that burned a little in her nose as she did, and Blight's spellcircles faded and she lowered her hands.</p><p>Luz sat perfectly still. Everyone was watching her. She tentatively took a little breath.</p><p>"It smells like toothpaste tastes." She said neutrally.</p><p>"Ha!" Noceda slapped her knee, causing the rest of them to jerk a little bit in surprise. She looked <em>very</em> relieved. "I felt that too. It'll go away, but that means it worked. Nice job you guys."</p><p>The older teen jumped up in her enthusiasm and shook Blight on the shoulder fondly. Blight looked a little mystified at having successfully completed Eda's intricate spell. Luz looked over at Amity and she smiled back, the witch giving her a slightly-lopsided thumbs up which was <em>just adorable.</em></p><p> </p><p>After some lunch and a quick healing glyph for Blight, they were gathering up their stuff in preparation for their journey to Bonesborough!</p><p>"'Kay so we've got food, weapons, bunch of artifacts that look helpful, blankets and clean clothes, paper for glyphs, marking tools, other tools, literally everything from every bathroom," Noceda was listing off all their new supplies. Since they didn't know exactly how long they would be gone for and both Noceda and Blight seemed to be the cautious sort when it came to their gear (<em>paranoid, more like,</em> Luz thought with a snicker), they had insisted that Luz and Amity bring everything important, including their key notes and research things of Eda's. Luz hoped Eda didn't come back while they were out and think someone had robbed her.</p><p>"Bye Owl House! We'll hopefully be back by tomorrow!" Luz yelled into the living room from the doorway. She closed the door and addressed Hooty. His creepy empty eyes didn't bother her so much since his accompanying her around the property while she explored.</p><p>"Bye Hooty, we're going to Bonesborough! See you soon, alright?" She offered the house demon a little smile. Blight and Amity were already further ahead but Noceda was hovering closer to the house with her.</p><p>"See ya Hooty." Noceda gave him a little sailor's salute before turning away. His neck stretched out a bit and he just looked between Luz's face and Noceda's back.</p><p>
  <em>I feel kind of bad. Even if he can be kind of annoying it's awful that he's been here alone all this time. </em>
</p><p>Luz gave him another little wave and a smile that she hoped was reassuring and went to follow Noceda.</p><p>"...hoot... stay..."</p><p>Luz spun around, she swore she heard him speak just now! Hooty was stretched out more and opening and closing his beak silently.</p><p><em>Maybe I imagined it? Poor guy, he does look lonely though. </em> She turned again to follow the others.</p><p>"..hoot. Stay."</p><p>That time she heard it for sure. She whirled in place and smiled at him, feeling hopeful for the demon now that he'd actually spoken.</p><p>"Hey, you finally said something! That's great Hooty. Don't worry, we're just going to be gone for a little bit. Let's talk more when we get back okay?"</p><p>She felt bad leaving right as he finally started talking again, but they really had to go check Bonesborough sooner rather than later. Among everything else, Willow and others she knew might need them.</p><p>"Hoot. Stay!"</p><p><em>Sorry Hooty. </em>A pang of guilt made her shoulders droop and her feet feel heavy.</p><p>"Hoot! Stay! HOOT! STAY! <em>STAY! </em><strong> STAY! HOOT!</strong></p><p>His increasingly panicked screeching drew the others' attention and Luz could see Noceda spin first and look at him with clear worry and then she suddenly-</p><p>"Oof!" Luz felt the breath get knocked right out of her as Hooty hooked his neck around her middle and flung her back through the now open front door. "HEY!" Noceda shouted before the door slammed shut and Luz was left blinking on the floor in a daze.</p><p>
  <em>"Hoot! Stay! Stay! Hoot!"</em>
</p><p>Hooty was screeching outside and Luz ran up to the door and tried to pull it open to no avail. She pounded on the door a few times yelling, "Hooty! Open up! Let me out!"</p><p>Luz could hear the others shouting angrily outside and she ran up to the larger of the two stained glass windows to see what was going on. Hooty was trying to wrap around Noceda and she ducked the attempt but when Hooty tried again she struck him with her bat!</p><p>"Oh no!" Luz ran back to the door and threw her hands up against the shaking wood. "Hooty, you have to let us go! We don't want to hurt you!"</p><p>She could still hear his frenzied voice and he didn't seem to be calming down at all. They couldn't reason with him if all he was going to do was shout and grab at them!</p><p>Suddenly Luz heard a loud shattering sound and Noceda called out from the kitchen. "Luz! Get over here and climb out the window!"</p><p>"Ooh, Hooty." Pain wrenched her chest at the thought of having to attack the poor house demon and she quickly hopped around the piles of papers and books towards the kitchen. A loud wooden wrenching noise was building behind her but no sooner did she turn her head to see if maybe someone had gotten the front door open, when a huge bird foot with wicked talons snapped closed around her!</p><p>"Hooty!" Fear shot through her and the foot whipped back, bringing her with it and crashed into the wall close to the door. It looked and felt like wood but it was covered in hair or feathers, it was hard to tell. The upper part of the leg was mashing and merging back into the wall like it was a part of it, leaving the foot and talons gripping her painfully tight and holding her a good two feet off the ground.</p><p>"Ow! Hooty let me go! Please Hooty!" Her heart was basically a purr in her chest, and both arms were pinned against her sides. Her bag with all her stuff in it was pressed so hard against her back that there would definitely be something broken in there. "Hooty you're hurting me!"</p><p>His screeching outside wasn't stopping and Luz looked around wildly, the whole house seemed to be vibrating, dust was floating down from the ceiling where little hairline fractures were forming. She tried kicking the wall behind her but it wasn't doing any good. There was no way she could overpower the massive talons gripping her and she couldn't use her glyphs like this!</p><p>Noceda shot into the room and Luz felt a surge of desperate relief as the older teen stumbled through their hours of careful work all over the floor to get to her.</p><p>"Is Hooty doing that?!" She asked incredulously, sizing up the huge thing restraining her.</p><p>"I can't get loose! He's way too strong!" Luz whipped her head to the side as Noceda started bringing her baseball bat down on parts of the huge foot, throwing wood chips into the air but otherwise not affecting it. The impacts were ringing in her ear and she felt the toes around her flinch with each hit.</p><p>"Shit. Okay. Shit!" Noceda was backing away and pulling out some glyphs. It looked to Luz like she was trying to pick a place to attack that wouldn't hurt her as well.</p><p>Luz tried squirming and struggled to pull her right arm out of the grip while Noceda licked the back of a piece of glyph paper and stuck it to her bat. With a quick warning so Luz could try and be ready she struck the foot on the side where the seam between wall and foot was blurred.</p><p>The explosion was similar to when Noceda had been fighting that spiny-faced beast Luz saw on her first day here. Though with only a single glyph activating on impact, the blast was much smaller. Still, a burst of wind and heat washed over her and she couldn't hold in the shout of pain as she felt her dangling legs and the side of her face and neck sting from the shockwave. The foot around her spasmed and tightened.</p><p>"Luz! You oka-" Luz didn't even get to cough out a response. Small wooden bird feet were rapidly forming out of the floorboards and with wickedly long talons were trying to grab on to Noceda's legs. She had to dance back to avoid them and was quickly pushed out into the hall.</p><p>"Noceda!" Luz shouted, but she heard a strangled yelp and a door slam in response.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>"GAH! You fucking tube!"</p><p>Amity narrowly dodged another of the house demon's attempts to wrap its neck around her, and Blight was on her last shred of patience with the whole thing, furious and spitting curses at it.</p><p>The house demon had been protecting them and it was a friend of Luz's and the owl lady's, but after it had grabbed the startled human and thrown her back inside it was clear that their safe-house wasn't as safe as they'd thought.</p><p>The owl demon was quick, and it's shrieking was disorientating. Amity tried to quickly draw a spellcircle but the demon punted her in the stomach with it's very solid face, knocking her to the ground and starting to coil around her again.</p><p>Blight rushed in and kicked it in the head, but that didn't seem to deter it this time. Amity couldn't help but stammer in fear and she tried to shove at the coils looping around her.</p><p>"Okay enough!" Blight shouted furiously. She twirled her index fingers on both hands and fire burst to life in her palms. "I don't care if you are Noceda's friend, you're pissing me off!"</p><p>She jammed her flaming claws into the bird tube's neck and Amity could feel the agonized spasm roll through its body around her and the demon shrieked so loud it made her ears ring.</p><p>The house demon pulled back quickly which knocked Amity right over. She jumped to her feet and tried to collect herself quickly, spotting the demon's face high up in the air now and looking down at them with far more fury and pain than she thought possible for a wooden bird face.</p><p>Luz and Noceda were still in the house and this demon was getting more and more riled up. <em>Sorry Luz, but I'm with Blight on this one.</em></p><p>They heard a muffled explosion come from the house and the demon shrieked again. It turned its attention towards the house for a second but whipped back as Blight started to dash forward to get to the door it was connected to.</p><p>The ground was moving.</p><p>Amity didn't even get to shout a warning but Blight managed to jump and stumble out of the way as a HUGE taloned foot ripped out of the earth. It spun around grotesquely where the ankle joint should be and snapped down on the older witch as she was getting up from where she collided with the dirt.</p><p>"Blight!" Amity shouted, and even though she thought her legs might just give out under her she tried to make a dash for the older witch whose leg was jammed under one of those big orange toes. She drew another spellcircle and summoned fire but the shrieking was coming from right above her and she almost took an attack head on, literally.</p><p>Pain lanced down her arm as her elbow hit the ground, hard. The demon had dropped beak-first from above and slammed into the dirt and she had barely thrown herself out of the way. Her mind helpfully supplied the assessment of, '<em>that could have been lethal!'</em> She was shaking so hard it was difficult to find breath.</p><p>Her wide eyes snapped to a blazing torrent of fire Blight was suddenly forcing at the foot holding her down and the demon lifted its head high up in the air again to avoid the flames. Long talons were sprouting out of the ground around the older witch during those few seconds her attention was focused on her magic.</p><p>"Blight look out!" Amity shrieked.</p><p>A second massive orange foot followed the talons that were piercing out of the ground. It was lifting and pushing the earth under Blight and all four toes curled around her, followed swiftly by the first foot. The older witch's face was completely stunned as she was held tightly in a mound of dirt.</p><p>Amity rushed over, craning to see her face better. Only her head and one of her shoulders was visible in the mass of thick bumpy skin, shiny talons and hard-packed earth.</p><p>"I can't move.. I can't move." Blight's voice was scared. Amity backed away, digging her fingers into her hair. This was completely overwhelming and she <em>didn't know what to do</em>. She still couldn't see Luz or Noceda and the demon's long tube-like neck was stretched around and its head somewhere behind the house.</p><p>"I can't move! Let me go! <em>LET ME GO</em>!" Blight's irises were pin-pricks in her wide eyes and in her panic she could do no more than struggle and scream.</p><p>
  <em>Titan help me what do I do? Nothing Blight threw at it is working and it's way too big to try putting in a cage!</em>
</p><p>A desperate idea struck her.</p><p>She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted to get the terrified witch's attention. "Blight! I'll be right back I'm going to try something!" Immediately though Blight focused on her and she screamed, "No! Don't leave me! Please Amity don't leave me!"</p><p>Blight's frightened voice gave her pause and nearly tore tears out of her, but Amity yelled back an apology and raced off down the path they had used to get here. She choked back a sob, she could hear Blight calling for her, calling for Noceda, and begging for her not to go.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>The floor was alive with grasping talons.</p><p>Noceda was chased out of the living room before she could figure out what to do about the fucking <em>floor turning into really sharp grabbers. </em></p><p>She was being pushed down the short hall opposite to where the guest bathroom was and she heard the previously locked sunroom door open behind her. "Hooty! Knock it off!" She yelled furiously. She swung her bat down on one of the writhing wooden feet closest to her and it snapped at the knee, but the two next to it kicked out, taking her by surprise enough to drop her bat to the floor with a dull 'thud' and then she was pushed through the doorway and the door slammed in her face.</p><p>Immediately she made for the wide window that gave the room its name, but the curtains slid open by themselves and Hooty was peering in.</p><p>Dozens of hooked beaks grew out of the walls and spoke to Noceda in Hooty's raspy voice;</p><p><em>"Don</em>'t  wor<em>ry,  hoot</em>.  I'<em>ll  be  rig</em>h<em>t  ba</em>ck  wit<em>h  eve</em>ryon<em>e  </em>el<em>se."</em></p><p>Noceda growled at him and spun around, about to grab one of the nice little chairs by the table that Lilith liked to sit at and drink her tea while she read through Eda's many books.</p><p>And complete with tea cup and saucer set out, in the chair on the other side of the table against the wall slumped Lilith's dead form.</p><p>Time seemed to dilate and blood rushed in her ears. She yelled, "Hooty you <em>freak</em>! I buried her!" Then Noceda picked up the chair closest to her and rushed the wide window, aiming to break the glass.</p><p>She bounced off and landed on her ass, the legs of the chair snapped and apparently much more fragile than they looked. With a vehement curse, she grabbed a glyph out of her jacket and ran over to the window, holding it against the glass. She was about to tap it but Hooty was right there on the other side looking in at her.</p><p>"<em>Lo</em>ok ou<em>t, h</em>oot!"</p><p>The <em>wall</em> slammed shut, showering her and the room with glass. The room was much darker without the main window to let in the sun and the smaller ones were too tiny and high up to reach. She scrambled to find a light glyph and get it lit. The beaks that had grown out of the walls were clacking rhythmically, she swore she could hear the word "<em>stay </em>" whispered around the room.</p><p>"Hoo!"</p><p>She nearly back-handed the little figure in front of her in shock. Fluttering right in her face with wide, frightened eyes was Owlbert!</p><p>"Are you shitting me?!" She glanced past him and sure enough, leaning on the cross rail of another chair was Eda's staff. Its place was also set up with an empty teacup and saucer.</p><p>The little owl flew over to the staff and grabbed it in his talons, bringing it over and shoving it in Noceda's hand while she watched, dumbstruck. He locked himself into place on top and hooted insistently at her.</p><p>
  <em>Well okay then.</em>
</p><p>Noceda took a deep breath and glanced wildly around the room, forming a plan on the fly. Her gaze lingered on the figure partly obscured by shadow. She sent a small apology to Lilith's memory. <em>I'll do right by you one day, alright?</em></p><p>She ran over to the wooden door and flipped her bag around to her front, opening one of little side pockets. She didn't think attempting to carve a large symbol into the door would go over well so instead she pulled out a new addition from somewhere in all of Eda's trash piles... a pad of sticky notes.</p><p>"Your rummaging paid off Luz." She grinned down at it. She had drawn symbols on the sheets most of the way through while waiting for one of their meals to cook.</p><p>Quickly peeling off a layer that must have been at least seven or eight sheets thick, she then slapped the wad against the painted wood and dashed to the table, flipping it over and sending the ceramic tea set crashing to the ground. She dragged the table to the other end of the small room and ducked behind it.</p><p>"Go Owlbert!"</p><p>She could feel the power of the staff in her hand send her mental command to the set of symbols across the room and they all activated simultaneously.</p><p>The explosion blew the door to splinters and rocked the table but she clamoured over it and jumped onto Eda's staff. Owlbert's eyes lit up and his wings shot out. They suddenly propelled forward into the hall and over the floor of grasping talons, rounding the corner into the living room so fast Noceda almost tore right off!</p><p>She could see Luz still struggling in the huge wooden foot and she'd managed to somehow get an arm free but it didn't look like she was able to get any further than that. Noceda flew over (boy did Luz look shocked now!) and kept out of reach of the floor-talons and tried to think of a way to get Hooty to let go without roughing the younger teen up too much.</p><p>Noceda suddenly whipped her head towards the door so hard she nearly gave herself whiplash. <em>Is that Blight screaming?</em></p><p>~ * ~</p><p>Amity's breath burned in her lungs and she couldn't really feel her legs anymore with how much adrenaline was pumping through her.</p><p>She burst out of the trees and back onto the path where she could still see Blight restrained by those huge talons, and the house demon's head was in the front again and looking like it was about to enter its own doorway.</p><p>She couldn't really make out her own peripherals because of the shower of pink sparks being given off of her twin spell circles. She'd needed to be as visible as she could think of, and this seemed to work.</p><p>A thundering crash from behind her nearly caught her by surprise but she somehow put on another burst of speed that she rightly shouldn't have. She was racing towards the house and close behind her were at least three boar demons, including the huge one they'd seen two days ago upon arrival. It seemed like they had taken to milling around outside Hooty's killzone once it became apparent that they couldn't safely approach the area anymore. Her rain of sparks and taunts made quick work of their hesitation however.</p><p>Amity flew past Blight who was still struggling but moving her mouth wordlessly, possibly too hoarse to be heard over the cacophony of screeches, roaring and creaking. The house demon whirled to look at her and moved out of the way, leaving the door open like it was inviting her to get to safety.</p><p><em>I don't think so,</em> she growled to herself.</p><p>She ducked under the demon's tube-like body and kept running along the front of the house, but the boar demons slammed into its long neck and started attacking!</p><p>The house demon started screeching in rage and agony and its huge orange feet immediately let go of Blight, pouring her and her entombment of dirt onto the ground in favour of desperately clawing away the vicious boars biting and pounding at its neck.</p><p>Another boar demon rushed out of the trees and was heading straight for Blight as she scrambled in the pile of dirt. Amity dashed over to meet it and aimed her twin jets of sparks right at its face, giving Blight a few precious seconds to get out.</p><p>Amity saw the older witch frantically check her body and then the immediate area and she snatched up her witch's bag that had torn along the strap and been thrown during the fray. The boar rushed her, but she ducked and ran up to Amity, tearing open the bag and reaching inside for something.</p><p>"He's coming back!" Amity warned, and as the boar turned around to charge again, pawing at the ground, another one was climbing over the lip of the bluffs!</p><p>Amity looked to Blight desperately, but the older witch had apparently found what she was searching for and she gripped the little ornate box Luz had given her with a truly manic gleam in her eye.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p>Luz was quite battered by this point. Even with Owlbert ('<em>where had he even been? I thought I checked everywhere!')  </em>Noceda wasn't able to force the claw to let go and there were more and more talons growing out of the walls and even the ceiling now reaching for her. Luz could also see that Noceda was clearly distracted by who she assumed was Blight screaming like crazy outside. She looked completely overwhelmed.</p><p>Luz was about ready to tell her to go, that she would try and figure something out with Hooty after the others escaped, but a thundering sound outside drew Noceda's attention to the door. The volume of their fight rose dramatically as Hooty began screeching louder than ever and all of a sudden a pig demon with a huge spiky mane of coarse hair was wrestling its way through the door!</p><p>Noceda dove towards her on the staff just as the monster leapt forward, yelling <em>"IT'S NOT YOUR HOUSE!" </em>at them and she froze up, crashing right into Luz's claw prison.</p><p>"Noceda!" Luz could see her beanie over the top claw holding her; she was sprawled on the front of the foot and completely dazed from either the collision, the demon's appearance, or perhaps both. The grasping talons on the floor, fresh and larger among the ashes of their burnt-away predecessors, immediately starting lashing her down. She was holding a few glyphs in her hand and trying to raise her arm to Luz!</p><p>"Oh boy we're not having a good afternoon." Luz declared to no one in particular and reached for the glyphs with her one free hand. She managed to grab them and she quickly transferred the slips to her mouth, holding the last one out and ready to activate it as the pig demon fought its way towards them through the increasing tangle of talons. The whole house felt like it was shaking apart and chunks of the ceiling were raining down on them all.</p><p>The hulking demon was nearly on them, bleeding heavily from all the cuts on its legs. Luz took aim with her glyph, feeling a bit sick as she prepared to summon the ice into a very sharp point.</p><p>The wall behind the demon <em>exploded </em>inward, nearly ripping Hooty's door off the frame and there was a massive goopy fist taking up a good chunk of the living room. Purple goo sloshed all over the place as the fingers opened and Blight stepped out, her arms wallpapered in power glyphs.</p><p>She had spellcircles around both wrists as well as her legs and her eyes burned with a magenta aura so bright they looked to be on fire.</p><p>Luz's jaw dropped and she mutely watched as the pig demon spotted the furious witch and made as if to charge her instead. She lifted her left hand, reaching out, and the massive goopy paw surged forward and wrapped itself around the demon then rushed back out of the hole it had made.</p><p>Blight lifted her right hand and reached out, this time towards Luz and Noceda and she gulped, hard. The witch looked absolutely <em>terrifying</em>.</p><p>Luz could hear the wall around her groan and she felt herself being shoved from behind as giant purple fingers broke through the wood and stone all around her claw prison. The fingers met around in front and stiffened, Luz could only see Noceda's face and neck amongst the river of sludge and she looked like she was coming out of her dazed state. Her stomach dropped like she was on a roller coaster as the huge fist pulled backwards, tearing them, the claw prison, and the section of wall it was connected to right out of the house and dumping them onto the ground out front. She felt the foot go lax, and she squeezed out and started digging the now very awake Noceda from the goo.</p><p>Not far from them on the boneless equivalent of being on its elbows and knees was the largest abomination Luz had ever seen.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>It was absolute <em>mayhem</em>.</p><p>Amity didn't know what to expect when Blight had opened the little decorated box she'd retrieved from her bag. Inside was a stack of small, thick sheets of paper and she pinched a bunch of them and tossed the box back in her bag, then the bag at Amity and told her to keep back in a scratchy voice.</p><p>More boar demons were coming out of the woods and the house demon had managed to mostly beat off the two attacking its neck but screeched in anger when it saw the others heading towards it.</p><p>Blight quickly peeled off the backs of each paper she'd nabbed and was slapping them on her arms. Amity recognized them now as the exclusive power glyphs that the Construction Coven produced!</p><p>Amity couldn't see what happened next because she had to hastily run and dodge several boar monsters heading her way. In seconds she felt an almost concussive burst of magic behind her and when she had a moment to look (while also avoiding the increasing number of excited demons) she saw an abomination at least twice the size of any she'd seen before and her jaw dropped.</p><p>The gigabomination was looming near the house while boars attacked its legs and the house demon continued to screech at all of them. A huge hoof-like fist nearly connecting with Amity's head though, reminding her that she was still out in the open and very much a target.</p><p>Two boar demons were focusing on her, and Amity's heart was beating so hard she thought she could feel her ribs rattling. She quickly dispelled her spark-throwing spellcircles and replaced them with new ones, this time raising a pair of cages around the two demons. She had never used so much magic in one day, but the thoughts of what that would mean for her had to take a back seat while she concentrated on keeping the cages active.</p><p>The boar that was closer to her was one of the bigger ones and started punching her force cage, rattling the whole thing and causing the energy to disrupt and flicker where its hoof-fist connected with the criss-crossed bars. It didn't seem at all put off by the zapping sensation and its pale blue eyes were wrathful. She managed to hold her cage through its blows but she knew it was going to break any second now. She realized she'd forgotten about the second demon but when she looked at the cage, it was empty! The demon was climbing the wall of the cage and now nearly over the top, burned all over where its skin contacted the bars.</p><p>"Oh come on!" Amity yelled in exasperation.</p><p>Pain lanced up her left arm as the bigger demon punched through her cage and it fizzled out, causing her to stumble back a few steps and hold her throbbing wrist. The smaller boar demon leapt from the top of its cage and landed heavily on the ground. Once again both were bearing their teeth and tusks at her menacingly.</p><p>The ground underneath the demons abruptly rose as enormous ice pillars launched them high up in the air to go crashing down into the trees nearby. Amity could have passed out in relief; Luz was running her way and Noceda seemed to be dragging Blight along right behind her. It looked like the older human was focusing exclusively on Luz because she didn't react as a boar nearly rammed into her from the side, only to careen with another ice pillar that shot out of the ground.</p><p>"How are you doing that?!"Amity yelled when Luz was nearly upon her, but she answered her own question when she noticed her holding a witch's staff!</p><p>Luz paled though and Amity turned to look down the path leading away from the Owl House and towards Bonesborough. There were at least a dozen more boar demons coming out of the trees and charging towards them.</p><p>Noceda was screaming at Blight to 'let it go!', and Amity could tell she meant the gigabomination that was stomping and crashing by the house, flattening demons and caving in parts of the building. The house was shuddering and the big orange feet that had grabbed Blight were missing. <em>The whole structure was starting to lift off of the ground</em>.</p><p>Amity heard Luz call out, "I'm almost out of glyphs!" and she could see the vines and fire she was using to try and keep the mob of boars back wasn't going to last much longer.</p><p>Amity took a deep breath and concentrated, hard. It was terrifying to block out the motion and sound and danger around her but she desperately tried to recall the mental channels that would form an illusory fire. She could hear Luz, she so seemed far away, encouraging her.</p><p>Amity twirled a finger and a little pink fireball popped into existence with a weak pulse of illusory magic spreading out not much further than her elbows. A frightened little sound worked its way out of her and she released the spell, trying again.</p><p>"Come on... come on..!" She hissed to herself, her hands were shaking so badly and her arm hurt from the cage backlashing just minutes ago. She twirled her finger again and a pink fireball flared out, pulsing much more strongly and blowing her green hair back but it collapsed into itself and fizzed out in a poof of acrid purple smoke.</p><p>"I can't.. I can't do it." Amity looked as Luz in dismay as the last few glyphs in her hands burned up, their effects travelling remotely to stun the demons that were nearly on them for a few more seconds.</p><p>The palisman sitting atop the staff in Luz's hands looked right at Amity with its brilliantly glowing eyes and it twisted itself out of her friend's grip. Luz looked bewildered and reflexively tried to grab for the staff but the little owl palisman zipped over to Amity and shoved itself into her shaking hands.</p><p>
  <em>Try the spell again young one. I will help.</em>
</p><p>Without questioning the voice echoing in her head, Amity held the staff out and closed her eyes, following the mental channels for a third time. She had the urge to twirl her finger but the magic flowed out unbidden and a wall of pink fire engulfed them, warm but not burning and it settled around all four of them and held up like a flaming bubble.</p><p>The flames went translucent, and Amity's vision cleared enough to see the stunned expressions of Luz and Noceda looking around at their pink-tinged forcefield. Boar demons were crashing into the bubble, which held strong, and they fell around it squealing in pain at their blistering skin from the burns. There was clear confusion on their angry faces as the lot of them tried to find their target, but where the four teens had been standing was just an invisible wall of burning agony. One by one they turned away and followed more of the boar monsters arriving and stomping their way up to the huge fight at the end of the bluffs. The house was standing two stories tall on sturdy orange legs and kicking at the giant flailing abomination while boars climbed up both of them, biting and punching in blind fury.</p><p>Amity turned to Noceda who started shaking Blight again; she was convulsing and her spellcircles were spinning tightly against her skin and burning her. The power glyphs that had been stuck to her arms had long since fallen off but the marks of glowing clenched fists were still branding her. "Blight you have to stop the spell!" Noceda was screaming at her. "It's killing you!"</p><p>"She can't shut off the connection." Amity realized, eyes wide. She lifted her arm and grabbed Blight by the shoulder, squeezing the staff in her other hand and felt for the torrent of energy that was linking the other witch to the rampaging magical entity. She found it, and she felt Owlbert reach out with her to snap the thick flowing thread.</p><p>"AUGH!" Blight cried out and spasmed, then immediately went limp. Noceda barely managed to catch her before she hit the dirt.</p><p>They could feel the impact of the gigabomination collapsing, even though they were far enough away from the giant's battlefield to be well out of the way when thousands of gallons of heavy abomination goo rolled over the area like a purple tsunami.</p><p>Noceda flung Blight's arm over her shoulder and Luz ducked over to get under the other one, the two of them lifting the passed out witch.</p><p>"Amity." Noceda got her attention. "Think you can hold that for a while until we're out of the area?" She was gasping and looked ready to collapse herself.</p><p>"Y-yeah, I think the staff is doing most of it." Amity gripped the staff tighter, and Owlbert hooted reassuringly at her.</p><p>"Alright. Then let's make ourselves scarce, shall we? This farewell party got way out of control." Noceda muttered darkly.</p><p>They started walking cautiously along the path, their flaming pink bubble moving with them. They could see dozens more boar demons streaming into the area; A coursing wave of muscle, tusks, angry eyes and the occasional delicate little tail with a red barb on the end. Sometimes one of the demons would slam into them unknowingly and get trampled by its fellows but it would get back up to join the rest of the stampede heading for the one enormous, shrieking target they could still see... The Owl House.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Sawdust</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Last week, on Adventures in Turm Isle:</p><p>Our heroes formed a mighty study group in search of answers to their many burning questions! Later on, Noceda followed the yellow brick road and got lucky~. The next morning Blight failed to kill Luz with Eda's filtration spell, and then Hooty invited everyone to a tea party but he's annoying so almost no one showed up. Amity played tag with a bunch of demons although they were getting too rambunctious so she lit some of them on fire.</p><p>What shenanigans will they get up to next? Enjoy Chapter 7 folks!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>The cloaked figure ran a gloved hand along the large, unnaturally manifested vine. It was one of many.</p><p>Dozens of massive plants in various forms were scattered around the area, some still standing, some fallen and more were lying at the bottom of the gorge where they lay broken. Huge chunks of the cliffside appeared to have been dragged down with them.</p><p>The figure approached a pair of leaf constructs on the ground. They were small and shrivelled. The strange shape they had been moulded into suggested attempts at making them capable of flight.</p><p>They looked across the gorge. On the other side another massive chunk of the cliff's edge was missing, likely having to do with the large tree at the foot of the cliff that didn't match the species of any tree around this area. Their sharp eyes could make out another of those strange leaf-constructs over there. That one was much larger but just as shrivelled as the small ones here by their boot.</p><p>There was a demon over there too, pale and hulking with long tusks and hoofed hands and feet. It had been sniffing at the broken construct but lost interest and stepped on it as it continued to trundle ponderously along the edge of the cliff. The dead and shattered bodies of several more demons resembling it lay scattered at the bottom of the gorge.</p><p>The figure took out their journal and a black quill. After a quick set of notes were jotted down, they tapped the page and the words faded. The update was sent.</p><p>These pillars were created with glyph magic. That much was obvious to them. And the user or users had made it to the other side.</p><p>In a swirl of sickly green fire, they appeared next to the large leaf construct that had only seconds ago been observed from hundreds of feet away.</p><p>The laboured breathing of the demon behind them picked up as it noticed them, it snorted aggressively and spun on its hoofed feet to charge. Just as it reached them and drew itself up, ready to pummel and stomp and kill, a long lance of tightly-packed earth so solid as to be stone shot out of the ground and pierced the mad beast from under its jaw and poked out of the top of their skull like a little party hat.</p><p>The figure began walking in the direction that the glyph-user had most likely taken. There was another magical leaf construct in the area, further into the trees heading east. The demon behind them was left hanging on the lethal spire, bleeding down the smooth surface and slowly inching down as their body relaxed in death.</p><p>As interesting as it might be to see whether the creature's weight would snap the spire or its own bones first as it settled closer to the ground, they did have to keep moving.</p><p>They had definitely found the human, and they didn't want to let the trail go cold. The Emperor was waiting, and he was not kind in his impatience these days.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>It was mid-afternoon before they felt safe enough to stop and rest.</p><p>Luz leaned against a tree and pulled a bottle of water out of her bag to drink greedily from it. Her limbs were shaking from the efforts of helping carry the still-passed out Blight for the last two hours or so. Noceda was holding the older witch and leaning against a raised wall of dirt leading up to higher ground, she looked about ready to fall asleep.</p><p>During their trek Amity had released her illusory force-field almost an hour ago and had gone from high alert on the look-out for pig demons to using Eda's staff as a walking stick and Owlbert peering around suspiciously instead. She was attempting to set a small illusory campfire now, although she looked so tired Luz couldn't see how she was going to manage.</p><p>"Argh... I can't get it." She huffed, looking winded and dropping her arms in her lap looking frustrated. "I can't get the spell to work."</p><p>Luz coughed a bit around her last swallow of water. "We seem to be okay here for now Amity, maybe take a drink and get some rest? I'll keep watch." The young witch raised her grateful eyes and she laboriously shuffled her way closer to Luz to lean against the next closest tree to her.</p><p>Luz reached out with her water bottle and offered it to her and Amity took it and finished it off without question. Luz's attention focused on the little wooden palisman hopping over to her. He stopped right next to her knee and looked up at Luz with his big yellow eyes.</p><p>Owlbert hooted at her. Luz smiled at him tiredly. "Thanks a bunch Owlbert. You really helped us out a lot." He blinked and nodded, then waddled forward a couple steps and shrunk in on himself like he was fixing on taking a nap. Then he perked up to repeat the gesture and Luz clued in.</p><p>"You want me to get some rest too?" Her tired smile grew wider. She like charades. It was lotsa lotsa fun. And Owlbert was really cute. What a happy little cutie. Haaaappy owl... She yawned hugely.</p><p>The little palisman perked up again and nodded enthusiastically. He then hopped into the air and fluttered up into the tree she was leaning against and hooted from somewhere amongst the leaves. Luz yawned a second time, feeling the suggestion roll through her body like a sedative.</p><p>Luz turned her head to look at Amity who was blinking heavily and nearly out, and she managed a quiet, "Thanks Owlbert.." before she too gave in and closed her eyes. Just for a bit.</p><p> </p><p>        She woke some time later to the sound of groaning and quiet murmuring. Luz took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes, adjusting to the sunlight that poured down around their little sheltered rest area.</p><p>Luz saw Amity fast asleep on the ground, pillowing her head with her arms. She then turned towards the sounds that woke her and she could see Noceda trying to contain Blight who was writhing and groaning in pain. Noceda was uttering soft reassurances to the unconscious witch.</p><p>"Anything I can do to help?" Luz asked with a quiet voice and got up on her knees. Noceda acknowledged her but didn't respond for a moment until she had a better grip on Blight so she didn't squirm right out into the dirt.</p><p>"Could you grab me a couple healing glyphs?" She asked finally, sounding very tired. "Should still be some in my bag in the side pocket." Luz made her way over to Noceda's bag and stood it up. Like Noceda and herself, it had purple abomination goo caked on it. She crumbled enough off like dried mud to get the pocket opened and picked out a few healing glyphs that weren't too rumpled.</p><p>Noceda took them with some effort and Luz watched as she half-wrestled Blight into a position that would keep her still long enough to get a glyph over her heart to tap. The older witch was sweating profusely and her lips kept twisting to bear her fangs in pain. Noceda had to keep reaching for and pinning her hands to keep her from grinding her nails into either of them.</p><p>"Let me know if there's anything else I can do, okay?" Luz said, and with a little nod from the older teen she turned around and shuffled on her knees back over towards her own backpack and she tried to feel around for anything like a little blanket for Amity. It was kind of damp in there, one of her water bottles must have been crushed while she was caught up in that claw. She began taking things out to let them dry better as she looked.</p><p>Like she suspected though, she didn't have anything since they had loaded all the bulky items into Amity's witch's bag. She spotted the little white purse-like artifact and went over to it, pulling open the top flap like she'd seen Amity do many times.</p><p>The interior of the bag was pitch black and Luz gulped, hoping she wasn't making some kind of mistake by trying to make Amity a little more comfortable. She reached in slowly, watching as her hand and arm disappeared into the inky blackness and logically should have meant her hand was partly going through the ground that lay right under the bag.</p><p>By the time she had reached in up to her elbow, she realized that the images of something like a closet weren't her imagination, she was <em>seeing</em> the contents of the bag overlapping with the forest and path around her. She focused and managed to spot their sleeping stuff, and she grabbed hold of a blanket and began pulling it out of the bag. It felt very strange to co-ordinate her arm with what she was 'seeing', like she was manoeuvring it underwater while she looked on from above the surface.</p><p>Soon Luz had tucked the blanket around Amity and gently worked her little pillow under her head without fully waking her. She murmured something that could have been a 'thanks' but sounded more like 'muffins' to Luz. She tucked some of her green hair behind an ear and whispered, "You were so cool today, Amity. Great job."</p><p>Luz wasn't really sure what she should do for the time being and she didn't really feel like going back to sleep. She decided to just lay out some food and water within easy reach of each of them and got Noceda to accept a blanket as well. She ended up just leaning on her tree while stroking Amity's back and staring out into space.</p><p>
  <em>I wonder if Eda is looking for a way to find out where we went. Maybe she and Lilith noticed we were gone right away and have almost figured out a way to bring us back. King is probably so lonely, poor little guy. I bet Mom is wondering why I haven't texted her.</em>
</p><p>Her attention briefly wandered back to the present as Noceda tried to use another glyph on Blight, but the golden light sputtered part-way through the spell and fizzled out. Noceda tsked in irritation but she didn't look surprised at the failure. She picked up the last glyph Luz had handed her off the ground and stuck it in her jacket pocket for later. Blight was still twisting against Noceda in pain but she wasn't groaning as much, though her breathing was coming out more like a hiss.</p><p>
  <em>Whether someone helps us or we find our own way back, I don't think I could go just yet. This place needs all the help it can get. But I hope we have a way back to the Boiling Isles soon. That way at least Amity can go home. She's done so great even though it's so scary here. I'd really really miss her though.</em>
</p><p>At some point she had taken out a notepad and been copying glyph symbols on the many sheets, mostly healing glyphs. She was getting pretty good at remembering them and would probably be able to do them by heart soon.</p><p>She glanced over eagerly when movement caught her attention, and it looked like Amity was waking up! She was rubbing an eye and sat up to take in her surroundings and peered down at the blanket she had been wrapped in. Luz was facing her when she looked over with a smile and gave her a little, "Thanks Luz."</p><p>"No problem Amity. How're you feeling?" Luz asked, feeling better herself now that the witch was awake.</p><p>Amity seemed to focus inward a bit while she stretched out the kinks from sleeping directly on the ground. After the symphony of little popping noises she turned to Luz with a thoughtful expression.</p><p>"I don't feel great, but I'm alright." She looked past Luz to see Noceda, probably asleep or mostly there, still cradling Blight who had her face buried and was shivering. "Better off than her, definitely." Her brows furrowed with concern and she didn't say anything else for a while.</p><p>The sun was getting close to the treeline and the sky was taking on some of the usual swirl of dusky colours. By the time Noceda was awake Luz had cleaned her bag of most of the dried abomination muck and, not confident in her field-cooking skills to try a hot dinner quite yet, made an assortment of little cracker sandwiches using the various things from Eda's pantry.</p><p>"Heh, thanks guys." Noceda tried for a half-smirk as she took one of the peanut-spread sandwiches from her offered plate on the ground. "It's like breakfast in bed, but instead of a good night's sleep we got all beat up."</p><p>After a few sandwiches of her own and a confirmation from Noceda that they'd best just hunker down here for the night, Amity tried her illusory fire spell again and the little ball of pink flames popped into existence. Before she could complete the spell though, she realized that she didn't have any wood to set it down on.</p><p>"I'll go get some!" Luz volunteered and started picking up branches from the immediate vicinity. She caught Amity looking deeply at the flames in her hands with some awe, though Luz came back quickly with the fuel so the young witch didn't have to power the spell for longer than she needed to. She arranged the twigs how Amity told her to, going off her best approximate from the few times she'd seen Blight do it. Owlbert fluttered gently to the ground just in time for the release of the pulse of illusion magic that would keep them hidden until the next morning. Luz took a little more time to find additional branches and bring them close by for when the fire needed it before they lost too much of the remaining light.</p><p>"Nothing really goes according to plan around here, does it?" Luz sort of joked while she was wiping off with a washcloth (Noceda had shown her where to find a springwater glyph). Traces of the abomination goo that had still been on her skin were itchy.</p><p>"Ah well, no one died so it's not all that bad I guess." The older teen replied with dry humour and accepted a cloth and mixing bowl of water that Amity set out for her with a thanks. She used the cloth to begin the lengthy process of wiping herself and Blight clean since she'd waved off Luz's attempts to help in that area. She did accept a pair of healing glyphs for the cuts on her legs though. Thanks to all the new gashes courtesy of the talons that kept grabbing at her from the floor, Noceda's jeans were ruined and when she took them off to change at some point she was probably just going to call them a loss. Even her jacket had a couple new tears in the back.</p><p>"So... shit. So much for making it to Bonesborough today. I was looking forward to getting some Not-Dogs if the vendor wasn't a psycho yet." Noceda griped. Luz chucked without humour and Amity kept quiet as she nibbled on a cracker sandwich.</p><p>"Anyone know where Blight got all those power glyphs from?"  Noceda asked. Luz shook her head but Amity responded quietly.</p><p>"She took them out of that little box Luz found."</p><p>Luz felt distress weigh over her, she'd found the box and given it to Blight. <em>She's in pain now and it's my fault?</em></p><p>"I did that to her?" She near-whispered. Amity looked up suddenly, seeming to realize the impact her words had. Noceda shook her head but wasn't looking at her while she spoke.</p><p>"She did that to herself. But if one of you could find the rest and give them to me I'd be grateful."</p><p>Amity shuffled closer to the older teens and picked up Blight's witch's bag where she had dropped it off earlier. Luz had wrapped some tape around the torn strap but it wasn't going to hold up very well. Amity began rooting around in the bag looking for the decorated box Blight had pulled out during the fight.</p><p>"What happened after I went inside?" Noceda asked, looking towards the young witch as she searched. Amity glanced at her for a moment and took a breath, recounting the events that had unfolded and escalated so quickly after Noceda ran off behind the Owl House to try and get Luz out.</p><p>"That house demon kept attacking us and these huge bird feet came out of the ground and grabbed her." Amity said neutrally, tilting her chin towards the unconscious older witch. She was staring down at the place where her arm disappeared into Blight's bag. "I ran off to see if I could find some of those boar demons to distract it."</p><p>"You what?!" Luz hissed at her. "Amity that's so dangerous!"</p><p>"It was all I could think of." She shrugged.</p><p>"So you led all those demons into the area? How?" Noceda asked her. Luz turned to Amity again while she looked up at the older human.</p><p>"I found a few of them down the path, but just a few. I heckled them so they would follow me and I led them right up to the front door where that house demon comes out of. But I didn't bring all those other ones. They were just coming from everywhere."</p><p>"One of them came in the house. That was before that ridiculously huge abomination started breaking down the walls." Luz informed her. Amity looked surprised by the news and looked at Noceda with a worried expression. Noceda just nodded in understanding.</p><p>"So that's what happened. So, what, Hooty just started attacking the rest of them then?" She didn't seem to feel like sharing what the effect of having one of the pig demons in the house with her was to Amity, given that it resulted in her diving right into Luz's prison and practically braining herself.</p><p>Amity nodded, looking somewhat guilty. Luz could tell she knew her plan had affected how Noceda fought. "Yeah. It let go of Blight and that's when she used all those power glyphs. I wasn't paying as much attention since there were more boars running out of the woods at us. I'm sorry for making everything worse." She sounded like she was tearing up and Luz shuffled over quickly to reassure her.</p><p>"Amity, don't be sad. It sounds like they were already in the area, how else would they have gotten to us so fast? You were really brave and smart to find some that could distract Hooty. You couldn't have known that so many others would come too." Luz was smiling and trying to catch her eye, but Amity kept her focus determinedly on the witch's bag she was pawing through. She looked like she was kicking herself; Luz sure knew the feeling.</p><p>"It's already done, anyways." Noceda started, but Amity jerked and cut in, "Is she going to be okay?" She looked up and her wide eyes were flitting between the two older teens. Noceda shrugged and looked down at the passed out witch. All she said in response was, "We've been here before." A few quiet moments later Amity pulled out the ornate little box with the stack of power glyphs inside and placed it close to Noceda. Then she sat back, looking subdued.</p><p>"Are we... still going to try and find some clues about where Eda might've gone in Bonesborough?" Luz asked, directing her gaze at Noceda. "We kinda can't keep looking around the Owl House anymore."</p><p>The three teens suddenly looked down at Owlbert, who hooted from his place on the ground. He was turning his head this way and that, and then hopped over to Amity and jumped up to stand on her leg.</p><p>Amity was looking at the little palisman, and Luz could swear she could see her eyes letting off the faintest glow of light. After a few seconds Amity's face jerked up and she looked decidedly more hopeful.</p><p>"Owlbert says he knows where Eda is!"  She and Luz exchanged surprised smiles at the news. Noceda sighed with relief and even grinned with the small victory.</p><p>"That gives us a heading then after we've hit Bonesborough. Thanks Owlbert." She tilted her chin at Owlbert and he nodded at her. Luz noticed his eyes lighting up just a little bit and saw that Amity's were doing it at the same time. She seemed to be listening to a voice only she could hear.</p><p>"He says he came back to the Owl House hoping you would be there." Amity looked up at Noceda. "He says Eda can't move anymore and he didn't know what to do." Her words and Noceda's expression grew much more panicked with each word she spoke.</p><p>Noceda's eyes were wide with worry now and she looked directly at the little owl and asked in a rushed voice, "Owlbert how long ago was that? How long were you at the House before we arrived?"</p><p>Luz watched Amity as she listened, shutting her eyes and concentrating. Owlbert seemed to be filling her in on quite a bit this time. Her brows were furrowing and relaxing in turn and Luz felt herself bouncing somewhat with impatience.</p><p>"He doesn't know how long it's been. Apparently the house demon locked him in one of the rooms and wouldn't let him out." She opened her eyes finally and relayed. "He says he was sleeping for a long time because of how annoying and scary it was acting."</p><p>Noceda's face turned ashen. Luz could practically hear her thoughts and she shared them. <em>If Owlbert showed up well before us and Eda was in trouble then... she could already be...</em></p><p>"Owlbert says Eda is alive." Amity blurted out, realizing what affect her words were having on the two of them. Noceda looked over at the little palisman again and began running her hand along Blight's upper arm absently. "Owlbert, how do you know she's alive?"</p><p>His big yellow eyes glowed softly again, communicating with Amity and he was tapping one of his little wings to his wooden chest. Noceda looked at Amity for the explanation.</p><p>"He says he can feel her. She's alive and she's.. uh.. 'in-tune'? I'm not really sure about that part."</p><p>Luz started bouncing again, much more eagerly. "So Eda is okay and you can take us to her, right Owlbert?" She looked down at the little owl on Amity's leg and he hopped a quarter-turn to look up at her, nodding animatedly and let out an encouraging little coo.</p><p>Noceda seemed to mold herself against her earthy wall, looking significantly more at ease with the good news. Amity turned to Luz and took a moment to order her thoughts.</p><p>"We're still going to Bonesborough, right? I know we have to find Eda and all, but she's not the only powerful witch on the isles. I still think we should ask around, maybe find Principle Bump if we can and see if anyone else knows about the portals we came through."</p><p>Luz nodded and she thought of Willow and Gus. If they were here too she hoped they were safe. "Yeah, I doubt that plan has changed. Noceda?"</p><p>The older teen grunted an affirmation. "Barring any more bullshit, yeah." She glanced down at Blight, whose expression was difficult for Luz to see now with the deepening dusk shadows. "I'm gonna use glyphs on her every few hours, hopefully she'll be lucid enough to walk in the morning. If not, we can probably just carry her on Eda's staff."</p><p> </p><p>        In the time it took for the sun to completely disappear and the sky to darken into a purple-blue mix the lot of them had their sleeping bags out and other items they used while camping. Noceda had settled Blight on top of her sleeping roll and had properly washed off the rest of the abomination goo in their springwater glyph before deactivating it with her toothbrush still hanging out of her mouth.</p><p>Luz handed Amity a healing glyph. Floating around them were several light balls that the green-haired witch had tried summoning and once she felt like she had a better handle on them she was going to try her first healing glyph on Luz. Amity had long since had her sore arm and stomach where Hooty had headbutted her healed up; Luz wasn't going to stand for her being in pain!</p><p>But Amity wanted to learn how to repay the favour. And so it was that Luz showed her where she had burns along the side of her leg from some of Noceda's attempts to make the big claw let go of her and Amity was nervously closing the distance between mildly blistered skin and her little glyph.</p><p>"I can't possibly screw this up, right? Like the worst that can happen is it just doesn't work, right?" She was glancing between Luz's face and her burn. Luz nodded encouragingly, both for Amity's sake and to help push her into the attempt since the burn was sore and itchy. "You'll do great Amity. Give it a try."</p><p>Amity took a few breaths to steady her nerves and then gingerly pressed the little sheet of paper against Luz's leg, tapping it. She immediately flinched though, "Shoot I was supposed to concentrate on the burn wasn't I?"</p><p>Luz didn't respond right away as she felt the healing magic sink into her skin and relieve the pain and redness. She felt a little tingle go through her and when she opened her eyes Amity was looking at her with baited breath. She smiled at her, "It worked great, Amity! That feels way better."</p><p>They tried a second time on the much smaller burn that marked her other knee and it went just as well. Luz could see in her face that it was important to Amity to get the healing glyph right; they both figured it was going to be needed again.</p><p>"It feels like so long ago that we first came here." Luz mentioned idly, snuggled in her sleeping bag and about ready to doze off again. Amity was sitting on her bag and scrunched her nose in thought. <em>I love when she does that, </em>Luz thought and yawned.</p><p>"It's been six days and five, no, six nights now. Everyone back home is probably looking for us." Amity said, although she didn't exactly look sad or worried. Perhaps resigned?</p><p>"Hey, Amity..." Luz started sleepily. The young witch turned to look at her. "Everything is going to turn out just fine. We're gonna make it happen. I know it." She wasn't sure if she got out the last few words but she was already too far gone to know if Amity responded.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Amity wasn't quite ready to turn in just yet. She'd already spent a few hours of the day sleeping and she had more energy than she normally would have at this time of night. Seeing as Noceda was the only other one awake, she inconspicuously shuffled closer, wondering how to ask what she was thinking about.</p><p>"Something on your mind, Amity?" Noceda beat her to it. She was grateful for the opening.</p><p>She fiddled with the hair tie she'd pulled out. She felt so awkward asking about anything having to do with this stuff.</p><p>"What's going to happen to Blight?" She jerked up to meet Noceda's calm gaze. "If you're comfortable telling me, I mean."</p><p>Noceda nodded slightly like she was expecting the question. She looked over to the older witch who was still curled up on top of her sleeping roll.</p><p>"When she uses a lot of magic nowadays, she'll regress. Sometimes she's angry, or incoherent... She's not herself, that's for sure." Noceda looked up at Amity soberly. "I'll let her tell you about it some other time, but I'll just say that we had a lot of work to do to walk her back to this point. Her back-slides can be pretty powerful, but as long as I keep up her healing regimen it should be brief."</p><p>The older human reached up to scratch around her chin and made her way to the back of her neck while she thought for a moment. It reminded Amity so much of Luz's little 'thinking tics' and she found herself distracted by the motion.</p><p>"You know though... I'm kinda surprised." Amity tilted her head in question and Noceda glanced at her for a second and then back at Blight while she continued. "All things considered, she's not nearly as bad as I figured she was going to be. I mean, she's not out of the woods yet for sure but... she used an awful lot of magic from those glyphs." She narrowed her eyes in thought and Amity waited. "But seeing her like this isn't any different than when she over-does it normally."</p><p>She looked at Amity now with a calculating stare that probably wasn't meant to make her feel self-conscious but it still did. "We don't have to talk about this if it makes you uncomfortable, but how are you feeling after having used so much magic today?"</p><p>Amity repressed the little jitter that she'd come to associate with the topic of her magic's... progression... but she swallowed hard and turned her attention inward to assess herself on a magical level.</p><p>"I'm not really sure what I'm feeling." She shrugged, and met Noceda's eyes again. "I know something feels off, but I don't know if that's just because I know about.. all this stuff going on and maybe it's just in my head. Although I didn't use as much magic as you might think... I used a lot of spells today but the biggest one by far was that big fire-bubble, and Eda's staff was doing most of it. I just had to use some magic for the base spell."</p><p>Noceda seemed to be filing that away for later. Some of her expressions and mannerisms were similar to Luz's, but there were differences that stuck out to Amity. The far-off look she took on during her quiet contemplation was one of them.</p><p>"We might want to keep a careful eye on how Eda's staff affects you, and Blight if Owlbert lets her try using it. If the staff did most of the heavy-lifting for that force-field spell like you said, it might be okay to get that power-boost on the average. But we also want to make sure that using the staff isn't going to start corrupting it, or Owlbert for that matter. I'll get Blight to keep tabs on that when she's better."</p><p>Amity felt her ears droop a bit. She was a little disheartened that she couldn't help Noceda with her observations even though she was a witch too. She was fairly good at understanding the inner workings of magic on an intermediate level, but she had no idea how to feel for the differences in purity like the older witch apparently could.</p><p>
  <em>Luz would probably say here, 'See if you can get Blight to teach you! If she can do it you can too! Happy happy smile smile!'</em>
</p><p>Her internal impression nearly made her giggle, but she caught herself before she thought Noceda noticed. Then another question she'd been meaning to ask put her firmly in a state of apprehension.</p><p>"Noceda... I had something else I wanted to talk to you about." Her eyes flicked to meet the older teen's, but she looked away again. She didn't know how this topic would be received but she felt that it was important to let the human know. She glanced at Noceda again and spooked a bit since she was just watching Amity with steady attention. <em>That's another thing... Luz isn't that intense unless she's mad.</em></p><p>"When I was... talking with Owlbert earlier and he was telling me about when he was locked in that room, he um... He mentioned something that might be difficult to hear." She was fiddling with her hair tie again and wrapping it rather painfully around one of her fingers. Maybe this wasn't something she should bring up after all!</p><p>"I'm gonna take a swing here and say it had to do with Lilith?" Amity's head shot up and she stared at Noceda. The older teen looked somber at the topic but not shocked. Amity could feel her mouth moving but she didn't know what to say.  She hadn't even fully understood what she thought the little palisman had said.</p><p>"Yeah Hooty threw me in that room with them, it's how I found Owlbert in the first place." She shrugged, looking nonchalant everywhere except her eyes. "Or rather, he found me in there. But anyways.. I saw her. Her body."</p><p>Amity felt a little sick. When Owlbert had said he was locked in the room with Lilith for a long time she wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. She kinda hoped that maybe Owlbert was just a bit funny in the head like everyone else here, but the thought of her old mentor actually somehow appearing in the Owl House hadn't completely escaped her consideration.</p><p>"Some day I'll go kick down Hooty's door and put her back in the ground. Maybe I can send her off properly this time." She looked wistful, and sad.</p><p><em>She seems so much older than she is. </em>Amity thought to herself. <em>Like she's been through a whole lifetime's worth of challenges but she's still young. I really hope Luz doesn't have to go through this much pain so early in her life.</em></p><p>Amity made to reach out, hesitated, then felt a rush of determination and she shuffled closer to Noceda and rested a hand on her arm. It took her a moment to work up the words but Noceda didn't seem to mind and waited patiently.</p><p>"I'm really sorry for your loss and hardships Noceda. You do so much for everyone around you. I really hope that things will start to get better soon." The simple words didn't do the human woman justice. She was so strong. It wasn't fair.</p><p>Noceda donned a crooked sort of smile, like she was trying to express one thing but couldn't decide which. "You're a good ki-." She shook her head and started again. "Thank you, Amity."</p><p>She gave Noceda's arm a reassuring little squeeze before she drew back.</p><p> </p><p>        Sometime later after Amity had gone back to her sleeping bag to sit and think, hopefully fall asleep at some point, she heard a slow, rhythmic rustling outside of their campfire and she was immediately suspicious and alert. She peered around the area, thankful for the light coming off of the moon. There were no clouds and the air was very calm. Earlier in the evening a small group of beedlemanders had emerged from somewhere in the brush close to them and startled Amity when one clicked threateningly at her, then the lot scurried off. But this sounded much larger and she feared the worst.</p><p>Unfortunately, she was right. A boar demon was quietly shuffling along the edge of the main path to Bonesborough. Its eyes were glinting in the moonlight and though it wasn't very tall, it looked very sturdy. Their campfire wasn't too far away and her heart started to beat much harder. Before she could wonder if she needed to alert everyone though, Noceda gently caught her attention.</p><p>"Amity." She glanced back at the human, who was squinting in the general direction of the boar through their pink campfire. "It's a pig demon, right?" Amity nodded and started to get up slowly, watching as it just made its way along the path and then started drifting to the other side towards the trees, completely aimless.</p><p><em>It's totally unfair that they're so quiet despite being that big, </em>Amity frowned. It had come close enough to take on the slightest hint of pink from their fire but now it was ambling off into the trees, its hoofsteps getting softer but quicker as it started heading down an incline and out of sight. Hopefully it wouldn't decide to make its way back up again later.</p><p>"Sounds like your fire is up to snuff." Noceda said, and Amity let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She heard Noceda do the same thing.</p><p>They didn't say anything for a while until Noceda broke the silence.</p><p>"You know, I kinda already knew this but you're a tough little witch. You realize that, right?" Her voice was light and Amity saw a glint of admiration in her hazel-coloured gaze. She looked away quickly with a tiny smile on her lips. It was kinda thrilling to be complimented by the rugged older teen. It made her feel like maybe she wasn't as much of a burden as she thought she was.</p><p>"Thanks Noceda." She murmured softly. <em>Though I wish I didn't have to be tough. I just want to be me. Still...</em></p><p>It was nice to hear it.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Noceda closed her eyes and concentrated on the sounds of soft breathing around her. There was no wind and it was warm out like it often was on the Isle but it was blessedly not very muggy out. A stray glance up into the trees revealed a pair of twinkling yellow eyes belonging to the only other member of their group who was awake at this odd hour. It was such a calm night as to almost be eerie. Inside her head was altogether another matter though.</p><p>
  <em>I wish Luz hadn't found those glyphs.</em>
</p><p>She couldn't help but feel irritated at her younger counterpart, although she <em>knew</em> it wasn't her fault that Blight overdid it. She didn't figure that they'd seen the end of the repercussions regarding the little stack of fist-adorned paper slips.</p><p>
  <em>You were so ready to stop and take a breather that you completely forgot that everything sucks. You let your guard down. </em>
</p><p>She should have suspected there would be trouble with Hooty. Everything brought trouble on the Isle these days. She wasn't even completely trusting of Owlbert yet for titan's sake. </p><p>Noceda concentrated on the sound of her own breathing now. She was only alive because of a little scroll filled with magic woven into a sick sort of joke.</p><p>
  <em>And you keep playing along with it.</em>
</p><p>Images of countless close calls flooded her mind's eye and threatened to overwhelm her. When she woke up last morning everything seemed so great, but then it all went south so fast. All it takes is one little mistake and her journey could be over, just like that.</p><p>She drew a shuddering breath. She kept getting second chances. Sure it was at the expense of a little bit of her sanity each time but she didn't want to die. She didn't think she wanted to die. Not usually anyways.</p><p>She reached up slowly and grasped her beanie, pulling it off and staring at the little folded slip tucked into the lining.</p><p>
  <em>One little fuckup and it could all be over. You never get a chance to save the Isle. You leave Blight alone to go crazy. And now you've got those two to worry about as well. </em>
</p><p>Not knowing was the worst part of it. Did she have another anti-fuckup or two left in her? Or had the Nine-Lives curse run its course and she was just as fragile and mortal as she was supposed to be?</p><p>She hated that mark on her chest. A taunting reminder of her pain and weakness. And yet, the thought of not being able to survive the next deadly encounter was terrifying. She picked out the folded-up scroll and just stared at it, marvelling at the simplicity of the old cotton paper against her chewed-up nails and tough skin of her fingertips.</p><p>
  <em>I don't want to die.</em>
</p><p>What she was living for was so difficult to hold on to. Every day was a constant struggle and it rarely seemed to get any easier. But she pressed on regardless in search of that coveted 'someday' where things might be alright again. She opened the first fold of the scroll; She remembered what the ominous scrawling text looked like.</p><p>
  <em>I don't want to die. But I don't know how much more pain I can take. Maybe I'm just torturing myself for a future that doesn't exist.</em>
</p><p>She folded it back into her beanie and replaced it on top of her head. Once again, she couldn't make a decision about her feelings.</p><p>Noceda glanced down at the witch beside her, restlessly shifting on her sleep roll. Her eyes were shut tight and her brows furrowed deeply. She lifted her hand and ran it along Blight's upper arm, stroking the pale skin and soothing her into stillness.</p><p>She found the gesture calming as well, and she zoned out for a little while. That is until Blight was suddenly awake and holding her by the wrist, her other hand clamped tightly around her throat.</p><p>Those golden eyes were unfocused and she was trembling. Contradictorily, her breathing was very steady. Noceda tried to swallow around the grip, and she held Blight's moonlit gaze. She waited a moment and clamped down on her body's urge to panic, kept what breaths she could draw as calm as possible.</p><p>"Hey Blight." It came out more like a croak. "What colour is your shirt?"</p><p>It took a moment, but those delicate brows furrowed in confusion. Another few seconds later made agonizingly long when one has crushing fingers wrapped around one's trachea, Blight's shaky gaze dropped. Then gold met hazel again and the witch said in a raspy voice, "Black."</p><p>Noceda tried to swallow again. Then she asked, "What colour are my eyes?"</p><p>The witch squinted, and her shaky gaze narrowed in on Noceda's face and she eventually stated, "Brown."</p><p>"What colour are your eyes?" Those fingers were loosening just a bit while Blight's gaze unfocused somewhat and she seemed to be pondering the question. Then she snapped back to attention as she answered, "They're gold."</p><p>"Yeah, they are. Last one; What colour is the night sky?"</p><p>She looked suspicious for a moment, then dared to take a quick glance up. "Black." She replied immediately. After a few seconds she looked up again, a little longer this time. "No. Blue. Dark blue and purple."</p><p>Noceda pulled her lips up into a half-smile and she could feel Blight's fingers slowly dropping away from her. "You see the stars?"</p><p>She was staring openly at the sky now, relaxing back onto her sleep roll and Noceda rubbed her wrist that had been held tightly enough to bruise.</p><p>"I see them." The wild-haired witch whispered. "There's so many."</p><p>"Yeah, there's a lot of 'em up there." Noceda intoned. She joined in Blight's silent observation of the cosmos and for a while she felt at peace.</p><p>She thought that maybe the witch was about to lie down and go back to sleep, but Blight sidled up against her and leaned in close to mouth wetly at her neck. She felt claw-tipped hands on her shoulder and thigh.</p><p>Noceda slowly lifted her arm to put some distance between them, and she reached into her jacket pocket to retrieve one of the fresh healing glyphs Luz had given her. When she tried to bring it to Blight's forehead however, the witch batted her hand away and the glyph fluttered off somewhere.</p><p>She let out a breath hard through her nose to stem her mild frustration and she reached into her pocket again, pulling out another glyph. Blight had placed one of her knees in-between Noceda's thighs and she was gripping her by both shoulders, her eyes practically shone like headlamps from the moon above but she was more silhouette against the campfire than she was details to Noceda's eyes.</p><p>She lifted the glyph slowly towards Blight's head again, though she curled her lip and Noceda could just barely make out those gleaming fangs of hers.</p><p>"Don't." Noceda warned, locking stares with the green-haired witch. She inched her hand closer, aiming to place the glyph just over her brow but before she could get there she was batted away again. Blight wrapped her fingers around the back of Noceda's head and dug her fingers into her hair, lunging forward to crush their lips together.</p><p>Noceda kept her cool best she could and tilted her face away until she could gasp for air. Electric pulses ran up and down her spine as Blight turned her attention to her ear instead, licking around the shell of it. Noceda reached up with her left hand and, not deterred by the kiss to her palm, she directed Blight to look her in the eyes.</p><p>"No, Blight."</p><p>Confusion and irritation were playing on her face and her breathing was deep and quick. Noceda kept her gaze steady, focusing on those shining eyes that were so familiar to her but not quite belonging to the witch she cared for so much. Blight reached up with her right hand to capture Noceda's and she pressed a warm kiss to her inner wrist, then leaned in to close the distance between their faces.</p><p>"No."</p><p>The witch stopped, hovering over her and the internal war was blatantly written in her expression. Noceda kept her gaze resolute. She didn't dare blink. Neither of them were in the right state of mind for this, even though her body was calling out for her to respond to the eager advances Blight was making.</p><p>"Go back to sleep." She murmured at the witch. She could see the openly-displayed emotional battle tilting in favour of anger and sadness at the rejection, and Blight pulled back. She was looking down at Noceda coldly now and after a moment of that hard stare she got up and slipped into the darkness beyond the fire's glow.</p><p>Noceda placed her hand over her chest, feeling her heart beating almost painfully. She strained for any sounds that may indicate that Blight was still nearby and she felt dread settle over her when the night came back just as silent as ever. <em>I'm sorry Blight. I can't do that for you when you're not yourself.</em></p><p>It wasn't the first time the witch had taken off into the dead of night, but it didn't ease the guilt and anger Noceda felt. As always, she had to have hope that Blight would keep herself safe and return when she was ready.</p><p> </p><p>        It was difficult to tell how long she waited, hyper-sensitive of every little rustle of a leaf or blade of grass around them, but eventually she shuddered in relief as she made out careful footsteps approaching. She didn't open her eyes while she heard and felt Blight lie down beside her on the cooled sleeping roll she had abandoned earlier. It was a good deal longer before Noceda let unconsciousness finally take her.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Something smelled kinda nice.</p><p>She couldn't quite get her eyes to pry open, but it didn't seem very important anyways. She could feel her hands tucked under her chin and a comforting warmth enveloping the front of her entire body. There was a strong, reassuring weight resting on top of her that she wouldn't realize was an arm until a few moments later.</p><p>She could hear whispering. Someone sounded upset. A second voice seemed to be trying to keep them calm. Luz wished they would keep it down, she didn't feel like waking up quite yet.</p><p>She snuggled into the source of warm comfort and whatever was lying on top of her seemed to tighten nicely in response. She squeezed the soft-yet-firm whatever that was trapped between her knees and she felt one of her legs gripped in turn.</p><p>The urgent whispering was annoying. It felt like she was being dragged by the wrist back to consciousness when it felt <em>sooo niceeee</em> to just float here between worlds.</p><p>She breathed in deeply, taking in more of the scent she'd been admiring but also gained another few steps towards wakefulness with it.  Her eyes finally peeled open and she just took a moment to stare at the pale skin of someone's throat pressed right up against the tip of her nose.</p><p>
  <em>Heh. That looks just like Amity's skin colour.</em>
</p><p>It would kinda make sense, her sleepy brain tried to inform her. She could hear Amity's voice. Though she didn't sound very happy.</p><p>
  <em>I don't see why she wouldn't be happy though. I must have finally worked up the courage to snuggle with her!</em>
</p><p>Luz was assured in her sleepy confidence that this was something Amity should have liked. Though something seemed off as her rousing senses began triangulating Amity's voice coming from <em>behind her</em>. Which was silly because Amity was right in front of her in Luz's arms.</p><p><em>No, you're kind of in her arms. </em>She poked herself in the chin to emphasize it to herself. She was blinking rapidly now.</p><p>
  <em>This isn't Amity.</em>
</p><p>She fought down the little wave of alarm and she carefully tipped her head back and up. Sure enough she could see Blight's face, framed in her wild green mane as it was, peaceful in sleep. The older witch had both arms wrapped possessively around her and their legs were tangled together.</p><p>Heartbeat picking up, she craned her neck to look over her shoulder and she could see Amity barely managing to stay seated on her sleeping bag, fists shaking in anger and Noceda crouching next to her looking harried like she was trying to explain something important but difficult to convey.</p><p>Amity noticed she was awake and Noceda quickly followed her gaze. The older teen rose her hands in a placating gesture towards Amity as the witch waved impatiently towards Luz and her unexpected cuddle partner. Noceda nodded and shuffled over towards them.</p><p>"Hey kid. You doin' alright?" Noceda spoke softly while looking down at her. Luz just kind of glanced around without moving her head. She made a little "Mhm" noise with the back of her throat to confirm her okay-ness. She was very quite okay, but she <em>really</em> wanted an explanation.</p><p>Noceda didn't seem to have any trouble sensing the question in her eyes and she started to speak, keeping her tone quiet and even.</p><p>"Blight is having a bit of an episode. Think you can hang in there until she's awake?" Noceda looked sort of at a loss and Luz was pretty sure the older teen was embarrassed, which seemed a little silly to Luz in any case."If you're uncomfortable with it though I can try to separate you two." She added hastily.</p><p>Luz took her bottom lip between her teeth and nibbled as she took tally of herself. Other than the faint urge to go use the outdoor facilities, she felt fine. Her heart had slowed back down to its normal rhythm, mostly, and she'd be telling a bold-faced lie if she were to say it didn't feel nice to be all wrapped up like she was. It wasn't rightly an embrace for <em>her</em>, she knew, but she nodded up at Noceda and sent her a reassuring little smile.</p><p>The older teen gave her a grateful little quirk of her lips and pulled away, although Amity appeared immediately after despite Noceda's quiet protests.</p><p>"Luz! You don't have to do that. Tell me you don't want to and we'll wake her up right now!" She loud-whispered down at her. The younger green-haired witch looked very annoyed and if Luz had just a tiny bit wider perception of her tells she would notice it for the jealousy it was.</p><p>"I'm fine, Amity. I don't mind waiting." She wasn't quite finished her whispered sentence but the arm not draped over her that curled around the back of her head drew in tighter and she could feel Blight's curled fist join the other against her spine. Her face was guided back into the crook of the older witch's throat almost by some awakened instinct and she could make out a rumbling that she identified after a few seconds as a soft growling.</p><p>She could still feel the waves of emotion coming off of Amity and she cautiously lifted her right hand a little from under her chin and sent a clear 'thumbs up' sign. That seemed to be enough to convey her wishes because the young witch snorted with obvious irritation and Luz could hear her move away.</p><p>She judged by the muted colours she could see that it was likely very early in the morning. She was still lying on her flipped-open sleeping bag and Blight was mostly lying on the coarse grass. She took another deep breath to settle herself the rest of the way and closed her eyes. Luz felt more than capable of relaxing in the unusual situation and if she kind of enjoyed the comfortably firm embrace, well... it could be her little secret.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Luz woke up abruptly as she was being shoved quite gracelessly away from a very surprised-looking Blight. She slid right off her sleeping bag and rolled on to her back, blinking up in mild shock at the morning rays breaking through the big tree overhead.</p><p>"Oh thundering Titan, finally!" She heard Amity's voice from somewhere on her left and she looked up to see her moving from her spot on the other side of the glowing embers that was the remainder of their fire.</p><p>"Good morning Amity!" Luz chirped at her when she came to stand over Luz, looking torn between several emotions that Luz wasn't quite able to keep up with. She seemed to settle on 'pouty' for some reason and she thrust her hand down at Luz to take. She grabbed hold of the offered hand and Luz made a cheerful sound-effect as the witch heaved her to her feet with surprising ease.</p><p>She was practically herded over to the embers of their fire where Amity was setting her up with food and drink although Luz was watching Blight curiously. The older witch looked a little shell-shocked and was still on the ground grasping the side of her head. Noceda was wandering indirectly towards her with her hands in her jacket pockets.</p><p>"Here. You must be hungry since you haven't been able to eat all morning." Amity said stiffly. Luz glanced up at the sky to see the sun was not very high up yet, indicating it was still early. She disregarded it though and found a plate with greenish scrambled eggs and slightly burnt breakfast-tarts in her hands. Framing the tasty-smelling display were alternating red and pink berries and a tiny flower for garnish.</p><p>She smiled hugely. "Wow, this looks amazing! Did you put this all together Amity?" She looked up and accepted the fork dangled in front of her. Amity sat with a huff and replied without looking at her, "Noceda helped. With the eggs. But yes I did the rest."</p><p>Luz ate with gusto. She wasn't <em>quite </em>sure what had Amity's back up but she figured it had something to do with Blight latching on to her. Luz easily chalked the older witch's behaviour up to the lapses she would go into because of the poison-magic stuff and startling her awake would likely have been dangerous, and she knew Amity didn't want to see her get hurt. That was probably it. If she just didn't say anything about it Amity would probably forget about the whole thing and everyone would be fine again.</p><p>She glanced up to see Noceda calmly asking Blight if she'd 'let her do it this time?' while holding out a healing glyph. The older witch didn't look very amused and they moved away presumably to talk and get a glyph or two in there somewhere.</p><p>"Think you'd be ready to head out soon?" Amity asked her, and she swallowed her bite then shovelled a bunch of the berries into her mouth. Sweet and tangy!</p><p>"Yeah!" She said with her mouth full. "I'll just finish this up and get dressed. Don't want to show up to alternate-dimension Bonesborough in my pjs. Talk about poor impressions amirite!"</p><p>Owlbert was making a little cooing noise like he was chuckling from up in his tree and that made Luz grin and even more eager to face the day.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>"-and so we're going to see if Owlbert was affected by the blah using magic yesterday. Noceda thinks that there's a chance we might be able to blah blah more powerful magic with the staff's help. I'm actually starting to wonder about the timing, there seems to be a delay in blah blahblah blahblah blah-"</p><p>She let her boots drag along the ground a little bit more, if just to put another few feet between her and the midget's too-loud voice.</p><p>"Wow! And here I thought you couldn't get any blaher, Blahbert! I bet we have this blah thing figured blah blah blah-"</p><p>More distance then. Baby Luz was even louder and more annoying. Speaking of annoying, the sun was way too bright. Where was all the deadly ash and shit in the air that supposedly clogged up the humans?</p><p>
  <em>Maybe your filter spell didn't work and she'll suffocate on the way. Nice and quiet.</em>
</p><p>As amusing as that was, she <em>actually </em>hoped her spell was fine. Little Luz was important to <em>her</em> Luz and she would save the dumb kid from ash or monsters or herself...</p><p>"Blight? You okay? If you're tired you can hop on Owlbert you know."</p><p>
  <em>And leave myself vulnerable to a potential enemy? You sure are naive Luz. The last owl we trusted h<strong>eld you so tight l y  y o u  c o u ld n 't E V E N BREATHE-</strong></em>
</p><p>Blight shook her head to help dissipate the voice.</p><p>"I'm fine." She said.</p><p>Baby Luz and the midget kept prattling on about magic purity and shit. Artifacts have pure magic. Artifacts aren't alive. The staff is an Artifact. The glyphs are artifacts...</p><p>Blight pulled open the flap of her ratty old bag again and jammed her hand in. All her and Luz's crap came into focus and for probably the ninety-hundredth time she tried to spot her box of power glyphs.</p><p>
  <em>She took them. You know she took them. </em>
</p><p>"-can find another baseball bat in the market. How did I manage to lose two bats in-"</p><p>
  <em>You'll bash her head in with her stupid basil bats if she took your glyphs. Tiiiiiiitan the power glyph magic was so crispy fresh! Crispy crunchy skulls~</em>
</p><p>She smacked herself in the temple with the flat of her palm a few times. The side-dragging of Luz's boots were barely warning enough to not shred her when her human approached and wrapped a warm hand around her arm to gently guide it down by her side.</p><p>She looked up to see concerned hazel eyes boring into her. Titan she was hovering a lot this morning. She pulled her arm out of Luz's soft grip. My arm.</p><p>
  <em>You know... if you kill her and she lives through it then she'd be her cute little sweet-sixteen self again for a while and she's way more obedient when-</em>
</p><p>"<strong>Blight.</strong>" She snapped to attention at the voice.</p><p>Luz was reaching into her pocket. Again.</p><p>Another healing glyph between her fingers. Can I just have the fingers? Glyph later, fingers now...</p><p>"Mind or body?" She asked.</p><p>Blight drew a shuddering breath.</p><p>"Mind. Definitely mind. Thanks."</p><p>Luz slowed to a stop, and she did as well. She reached out and stuck the helping glyph to her forehead. The urge to slash open the second arm coming towards her was even stronger than with the first.</p><p>
  <em>Why let her silence you? What's not to love? I'm Amity Blight. I'm gorgeous, I'm powerful, I like long walks on the boiling beach. Don't mind my murderously poor impulse control, you'll find it short-lived anyways! Huehehehe~ It doesn't matter in t he  e nd, yo u kn ow s h e' l l f ai l yo-</em>
</p><p>Familiar cool waves washed over the parts of her that were burning. A strong hand wove sure fingers between hers and guided her forward, another was placed on her hip. She followed their lead, she trusted them after all. Step, step, turn. Step, step turn.</p><p>She could hear that same chord she always did when she was here. It wasn't sad, or uplifting, it just was. She still couldn't figure out if it sounded more like an instrument or a voice.</p><p>She was pulled in gently and spun, arms held lovingly and her back warm against their front. She turned to see their face-</p><p> </p><p>Blight blinked rapidly. Luz was watching her carefully, one arm resting leisurely by her side and the other hanging from her jacket pocket by a thumb.</p><p>She took a deep breath. She took another. With a little nod, she indicated her readiness to keep moving. She could see Baby Luz and midget-Me up ahead, still chattering on. Even if Luz was trying to be subtle about it, Blight could still feel her watching.</p><p>She sped up, and Luz did as well but stayed a stride or two back. Hopefully she would stare at the kids for a while instead of her. Hover hover hover.</p><p>Baby Luz was not far ahead of her. She's way too happy all the time.</p><p>"Where was Owlbert anyways? I thought I checked everywhere when I was expl-OH!"</p><p>DANGER.</p><p>Blight tensed, painfully aware that her nails were still dulled from the stupid manicure she gave herself at the owl place. She couldn't slash with-</p><p>"-I never checked the sunroom! It was locked! Is that where you were Owlbert?" Baby Luz was bobbing in front of the palisman, whose jerky movements seemed to be accepted as a confirmation.</p><p>Blight flexed her fingers several times and willed her attention away from the adrenaline burning in her veins. She narrowed her eyes, and glanced up to see midget-Me watching her out of the corner of her eye. She thought she was so subtle.</p><p>
  <em>I could do whatever I liked to her and you couldn't stop me.</em>
</p><p>Blight took a deep, deep breath and rolled her neck to work out some tension.</p><p>"Dang... If I had tried harder to get in there maybe everything would have turned out differently." Baby Luz looked sad.</p><p>"Well everything turned out okay, right? Could have been worse, maybe things would have been worse if you went in there so no use dwelling on it! Right Noceda?"</p><p>Midget-Me's voice was so fake. She's hiding secrets. Blight glared suspiciously at her Noceda. She was nodding dumbly in agreement. Her lips were thin and her eyes troubled. She's hiding secrets too.</p><p>WATCH OUT! <em>Shit, my bile sac isn't full yet-</em></p><p>"Hey! There's the city limits!"</p><p>
  <em>Grr. Baby Luz...</em>
</p><p>She focused beyond the kids in front of her and took in the mostly-familiar sight of Bonesborough. The largest buildings and landmarks she could see looked more or less the same, so at least the city wasn't totally destroyed or anything. The massive wall of plants was new though. Her Noceda might get to see Willow not-dead after all.</p><p>She tensed up, spotting the demon and witch pair that were patrolling not far from the huge, "Welc/me to Bone//orough!" sign. Like a pair of slugs, they finally noticed the approach of four total strangers and one of them called out in an annoyingly scratchy voice.</p><p>"Halt! Who goes there?"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for the comments and kudos everyone, I looooove seeing them! :D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Welc/me to Bone//orough</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Last, uh, fortnight, on Adventures in Turm Isle:</p><p>After doing their damndest to avoid Hooty's teaparty, our heroes needed some R&amp;R so they camped out somewhere along the road. Their night was fairly uneventful, although Luz discovered her calling as a living body pillow! Now that Owlbert has joined the party we know Eda is alive but before checking in with her the group wants to make sure everything is chill in Bonesborough. Also some weirdo is stalking them but it's probably fine.</p><p>Enjoy chappie 8! It's the chapter that never ends because apparently I have zero restraint and don't like being on the updates page (although seriously tho, a lot of this was challenging so bear with me T-T)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>"Halt! Who goes there!" A skinny yellow demon shouted out towards them and brandished a polearm. "I don't recognize you!"</p><p>Noceda kept an eye on Blight while they approached the demon and witch pair who apparently served as guards for the section of outer wall that they were approaching... an outer wall made of thick vines, raw and processed wood, metal and stone. It looked sturdy enough to ward off just about anything.</p><p>Luz was waving her hand enthusiastically over her head and called out a friendly, "Hello!" although the nervous demon wasn't lowering his weapon. The unfamiliar witch startled the lot of them as they let loose a small flare, which shot high up and burst into a little puff of red sparkles and crackling noises.</p><p>"Hey, we're locals. We aren't here to make trouble." Noceda called out. The demon was studying her about as closely as she was him and she kept her pace slow and posture unthreatening.</p><p>"How come I haven't seen you before then?" The yellow demon's two sets of wide eyes were taking them all in rapidly. He sounded suspicious and a little bit obnoxious. His clothes were fairly clean and although Noceda couldn't really tell which features of his body were natural and which could have been warped, he was clearly in control of his faculties which was a <em>great</em> sign.</p><p>"We've been travelling. Who do we speak to about gaining entry?" Noceda replied calmly. She intentionally put herself just a bit further ahead than Blight to keep herself in the green-haired witch's view and although she was clearly agitated by the two guards she wasn't making any move to engage. Luz was looking between the demon and her, unsure of what to do and Amity hovered right by her elbow and kept watch of the unfamiliar witch closest to the wall.</p><p>"My colleague has called the Captain. He'll determine whether or not you're getting in." The demon said evenly. He seemed to be put at ease by their group's lack of aggression if the slight swagger added to his step was any indication.</p><p>"Hey, do you think Willow helped make this? It's huuuuge!" Luz gaped up at the wall. Now that they were close enough to the chaotically composite barrier they couldn't actually see any part of the city over it. The brown-haired witch who was lingering closer to the wall seemed to take notice of the mentioned name, which was interesting.</p><p>There was a series of heavy rustling noises and movements coming from the wall and part of it split open to form a make-shift door while a small group of people rushed out. They were all wearing armor and sports equipment and had a variety of weapons between them. The tall young man at the front barely glanced at them before he started barking at the original two guards.</p><p>"You guys I've told you not to use the red flares unless- NOCEDA?!"</p><p>Nearly breaking something with the force of his double-take, the young man gaped openly at her and Noceda flashed him a wide grin and a little salute.</p><p>"Titan below us, I can't believe my eyes!" He practically leapt over to her, surprisingly graceful for a guy with his sheer height and musculature and they were immediately a tangle of arms and crisp claps on the back.</p><p>"Damn Gus, you've filled out since I last saw you." Noceda laughed, feeling lighter than she had in a long time as her old friend looked down at her like he still couldn't believe what he was seeing. His big gloved hands on her shoulders were twitching with excitement.</p><p>They both jerked sharply towards Luz as she yelled, "YOU'RE GUS?! HE'S HUGE!" She'd dropped her backpack in her surprise and was pointing at him incredulously. Noceda couldn't help but snicker at the reaction.</p><p>Gus was looking between her and Luz and then seemed to become aware of the two green-haired witches with strikingly similar features, one of whom he was at least somewhat familiar with. He finally settled back on Noceda with a confused expression. "Okay, looks like you've got a good story going on here." He peered more closely at Luz, taking note of her ears. He chuckled, taking a step back and placing a hand on his hip where a sword was strapped in and ready to use. "Noceda you're never boring, know that?"</p><p>"I gotta keep the Isle interesting, ya know?" She shrugged nonchalantly and watched as two of the 'soldiers' (if their garb was anything to go by) came up close and one of them addressed Gus with a stiff salute.</p><p>"Captain, shall I escort the visitors to the HGA headquarters now, sir?" The kid was young and clearly took his job very seriously.</p><p>Noceda heard Luz asking Amity from behind her hand like she was confiding a secret, "What's the HGA?" and Amity's quiet reply of, "It's the Home Groaners Association. Most of the residential neighbourhoods in Bonesborough-"</p><p>She ignored the rest of their quiet exchange in favour of watching as Gus waved off the young witch who had offered to escort them. "Nah it's fine. I know someone else who's gonna want to see them right away." A genuine smile was warming up his face and Noceda couldn't help but get the impression that it was a rare thing for him nowadays.</p><p>Interestingly, the witch looked a little flabbergasted and replied in a dizzying rush, "But Sir! All visitors are supposed to be brought to the council immedi -", although Gus waved him off again with a twinge of 'patience' playing on his face that Noceda could empathize with very well.</p><p>"That'll be all, Private." Gus said in an authoritative voice. He then addressed the mishmash group of witches and demons as a whole. "You guys get back to rounds. Everything is fine here."</p><p>Most of them started heading back through the parting in the wall, looking rather relieved that there wasn't going to be a fight. Although the witch Gus spoke to seemed troubled and kept glancing back at them like they were offending him somehow.</p><p>Luz was looking through the opening in the wall and tapping her knuckles together excitedly, clearly happy with whatever she was seeing beyond the retreating 'platoon'.</p><p>Before they entered the opening in the wall Noceda trotted over to Amity and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. "Hey, can you put Owlbert away in your bag? We might not want to lead with the question of why we have someone else's palisman with us. Just to be safe."</p><p>Having Owlbert without an owner sharing his energy signature could be taken as suspicious, and she didn't want anyone accusing them of stealing him. Also, if Noceda recalled correctly, it was illegal for a witch to possess another witch's staff or palisman and there was no telling what kind of laws were still upheld in the gated-off city. The young witch nodded her understanding and quietly slipped Eda's staff and the dormant Owlbert into her bag and closed it. Then they stepped through the opening and for just a moment the morning sun seemed to part the ash in the sky; bathing the city in a soft, golden glow.</p><p>It was almost like how Noceda remembered it.</p><p>"Welcome to Bonesborough!" Gus cheered, stretching his arms out. Then he took on a funny look and added, "Uh, that is.. Welcome <em>back </em>to Bonesborough!"</p><p>The crazy architectural chaos that was the city of Bonesborough looked as wild as ever. Houses and gateways and low walls everywhere, nearly everything decorated or enhanced with spikes and eyeballs, teeth and pointy iron fencing.</p><p><em>Oh, how I have missed this place, </em>Noceda thought while she absorbed it all.</p><p>The area they were in was an open exchange grounds to handle crowds and wagons that were admitted to the city; it was the only part of Bonesborough that actually connected to the rest of the Titan. A couple years ago it had orderly waiting queues and stations to get visitors and incoming goods all set up, although most of the framework for these was torn down now. Instead, it was filled with racks of weapons, tools and shacks to overnight in. There was even a giant ballista pointed out towards the wall, ready to be fired at any large enemy that might make it beyond the other fortifications. From this side, Noceda could see platforms built into the walls that gave sentries a great vantage point and angles for bow weapons but they were undetectable to those approaching the city. There were dozens of demons and witches here, each bustling around with purpose.</p><p>Luz and Amity backed up close to Noceda as a truly massive demon lumbered up to them, although its attention was on Gus. Its face consisted entirely of a fang-filled mouth and it's skin was blood red. In its hands was a battleaxe longer than Noceda was tall.</p><p>"Sir, we saw the red flare!" A high-pitched voice piped up from down near the huge demon's knee. Noceda hadn't even noticed the tiny second demon down there. "Do you need assistance?" She squeaked.</p><p>Gus slapped a hand to his forehead. "Shoot, right. Uh, you guys I'm gonna have to hold off on the tour, I gotta go cancel that warning flare for all the other look-outs."</p><p>Noceda was going to let him know that it was fine but before she could say anything the massive red demon started speaking in a voice so deep it almost made her bones rattle.</p><p>
  <strong>"I can take care of that for you if you want, Captain Gus."</strong>
</p><p>Relief flooded his features and Gus grinned up at the demon. "You're a bro, Braxus, thanks!" and he offered a high five which was returned (also scary to watch as Noceda felt a sympathetic jolt in her wrist) and the pair of demons took off.</p><p>He turned to them with a cheery, "Well now that that's settled and without further ado, to Willow's! Boy is she gonna be shocked to see you Noceda." He grinned slyly. Then he looked thoughtful for a second, and then shrugged, and then waved for them to follow along.</p><p>Noceda's heart leapt up into her throat at the announcement. <em>She's alive. Willow is alive.</em> <em>She's here. </em></p><p>She must have zoned out a bit while they walked because she became aware of a warm hand tentatively resting on her arm. Luz was looking up at her with a comforting smile. Noceda nodded her thanks and the four of them continued to follow Gus while he pointed out features of the city that had changed or not since Noceda and Blight had been there last. He didn't really say anything about the sprawling mass of thick, woodsy vines that curled along the sides of roads, buildings and anywhere else they could find purchase.</p><p>"So, I gotta ask. You're obviously human, are you two related?" Noceda tore her eyes away from the surroundings to focus on Gus who was directing the question at Luz. She looked back as if making sure it was okay to discuss the topic and Noceda nodded. The younger teen grinned hugely and looked up at the tall witch proudly.</p><p>"Well, believe it or not, I'm not just related to her, I am her!" Luz stuck out her hand eagerly, "My name is Luz Noceda and I'm from a different dimension!"</p><p>Gus dumbly shook her hand but also turned towards Noceda, pointing at Luz with a questioning look. All she could do was shrug and give him a look back that said 'weird, but true'. His eyes then roamed over Blight, whom he probably recognized, and then the younger green-haired witch.</p><p>"Amity here is from my dimension too, well- I'm from a different realm.. <em>actually</em> nevermind that's complicated. Anyways, we were hoping to find out if anyone else from where we came from is here. You haven't seen another Gus half your size around here, have you?" Luz asked suavely like she was trying to pick up a bargain and Gus was blinking down at her blankly.</p><p>"Um.. no. I haven't seen another.. Gus.. around."</p><p>Luz took on a thoughtful expression and drifted towards Amity, seeming neither excited nor disappointed by the news. Gus looked a bit relieved to not be the target of her strange topic of choice anymore.</p><p>They left the entrance block and were now in the one of the residential areas, one which Noceda recognized pretty well even though she didn't normally approach Willow's stomping grounds from this part of the city.</p><p>She looked at her old friend, a bittersweet feeling in her chest as he noticed and tilted his chin at her in friendly acknowledgement.</p><p>"You look good, Gus." Noceda said with a half-smile she knew wasn't quite reaching her eyes.</p><p>He shot her a winning smile. "You too." His smile faltered though and he seemed to be searching for words for a moment while Noceda waited, a bit apprehensively she might add.</p><p>"Look, I know you've probably got your reasons but, I'm really hoping we catch up soon and you can... I dunno, maybe tell me why you left?"</p><p>There it was. A prickly sort of guilt washed over Noceda and she swallowed thickly while directing her eyes to the steps she was taking.  She could see a familiar pair of boots wander closer in step with her and that was a bit comforting.</p><p>Gus seemed to notice her unease and right away he waved his arms dismissively and spoke in a rushed apologetic tone.</p><p>"Ah shoot, Noceda hey-"</p><p>"No man, I'm sorry-"</p><p>They looked at each other, having spoken at nearly the same time. Noceda chuckled and scratched at her neck awkwardly and Gus scratched at his cheek looking abashed.</p><p>"We'll catch up." He stated simply.</p><p>"Yeah." <em>I'm thankful he doesn't outright hate me. Lucky even. </em>"We will. I wanna know how you've been." She said honestly. She wanted to know more about what hardships he and the other friends she'd abandoned had gone through this last year.</p><p>They didn't say anything for a few minutes while they walked. The buildings in the northern-most part of Bonesborough were as varied in size and shape as the rest of the quirky city. The huge composite wall stretched all the way up here and continued along the cliffs. Apparently any houses which looked out upon the water that were built into the sides of the cliffs had been abandoned. Noceda barely recognized the area even though she had been in this neighbourhood many times before.</p><p>"That's Willow's house?! I can't even tell anymore!" Amity gawked up at the tangled mass of vegetation that entirely enveloped the building. The house was tall and skinny, like a tree, with dark grey brickwork and dusky red tiles with lots of little balconies jutting out of the small rooms inside. That's how Noceda remembered it anyways.</p><p>Now, it looked more like a plant than a building. Trees wove around the walls and stretched out their boughs far overhead, forming a defensive canopy. Vines of every size fanned out from the base of the thing and ran in every direction as far as they could see. It occurred to Noceda that it was possible all of the twisting vines they had seen were connected to this one point. The growth around Willow's building was so exponential as to have even enveloped the house next to it, further distorting the memory of her old friend's home since the plants made them look like one singular structure. Interestingly, Gus was leading them to the shorter plant-covered house which still had a useable front door. He hesitated when his hand touched the knob, and he looked back at her with a complicated mix of emotions in his eyes.</p><p>"Um, honestly Willow prefers I not say anything when bringing anyone in for the first time but... just between you and me," Gus seemed to be grasping for words, "She can come off as a bit overwhelming at first." He met each of their eyes in turn, and seemed to linger on Luz's and Amity's open and somewhat nervous expressions for a few seconds longer. "Just... ya know, be cool."</p><p>While she appreciated Gus's attempt to be helpful, Noceda wished he hadn't been so cryptic. She was relieved to know Willow was alive but... what state was she in to warrant that kind of warning?</p><p>Gus turned the knob; it did so with a small grinding noise and he opened the door, motioning them to go inside.</p><p>Noceda entered into the foyer but that's where any semblance of a typical house layout ended. The entirety of the place had been gutted; Every inner wall and the floor of the second story knocked down in favour of more twisting megavines each one with dozens of smaller vines leading away in an extraordinary latticework that made the building more of a shell for the plants than a home for people. The far wall of the house was partially demolished as well, and where on the outside the vines had appeared to connect the two buildings together, inside it hollow and acted as a hallway.</p><p>Noceda heard the door close and Gus was beside her, tilting his head in the direction of the far side of the house and the tunnel formed of plants that led into Willow's house. She stepped carefully, the floor was a minefield of vines and the lighting was dim in here. Noceda glanced back, taking in the very quiet pair of younger teens behind her who were holding hands and seemed pretty apprehensive. Blight was behind them, watching Noceda but keeping an ear out behind them. The green-haired witch was nervous, enough so to feel the need to cover their rear. It was muggy in here and smelled like damp earth.</p><p>Crossing the large singular room and the tunnel that bridged the two buildings didn't take long, but every second seemed to stretch on. She could see the ground floor of Willow's house looked similar to the smaller house it was connected to. Upon stepping into what used to be a cozy little livingroom, the full changes to the building became obvious very quickly.</p><p>The floors that separated the three stories of the house were gone. There were no rooms, only masses of trunks and vines. There were plant bulbs that glowed, thick ivy that hung from the walls and criss-crossed up through the entire interior of the former home. Plants with flowers, eyeballs, fuzz and spikes, all sorts dotted the place. About half-way up where the second floor used to be, very possibly where Willow's bedroom was if she remembered correctly, was Willow herself. Noceda thought she was sitting at the top of the huge twisting pillar of roots and stalks, but that wasn't the case. <em>She was a part of it.</em></p><p>"Hey Noceda." The witch's eyes glowed down at her. Willow's mouth didn't move as she spoke and her voice emanated from various places around the room. "It's been what, 'bout a year now?"</p><p>"Oh Willow..." Noceda whispered, and she felt her eyes start to sting and her heart twist in her chest.</p><p>She thought she might just lose her composure. Noceda stumbled back a couple steps with her neck craned so she could keep her friend in view. She was distantly aware of Blight at her side, steadying her with a hand on her shoulder.</p><p>There was no clear transition between what remained of Willow's body and the teeming mass of plants around her. Only most of her face and torso remained somewhat witch-like. She had enough control of her facial muscles to be able to smirk down at them though.</p><p>Despite the numbness that was spreading through her, Noceda could feel Blight subtly trying to gain her attention. She tilted her head just slightly, so the green-haired witch would know she was listening. But she couldn't rip her gaze away from the towering thing her friend had become.</p><p>Blight leaned in and quietly whispered in her ear, "Told you she'd be right where you left her."</p><p>Ever so slowly, Noceda turned to look at the witch with the loudest <em>shut the fuck up</em> her eyes could possibly convey. Blight didn't need the command though, she was staring unblinkingly at her old friend and more pale than Noceda could ever remember seeing her.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Luz gawked up at the witch-plant monstrosity. Amity was pressed right up against her side with a hand clamped over her mouth and wide eyes threatening tears.</p><p>"Hey now you guys, I'm the one without a tongue. How about a 'Hello' for your good old friend Willow?"</p><p>The witch that was apparently the alternate version of their friend was grinning down at them, although Luz was hearing her voice vibrating through toothy flowerheads and hanging ivy all around them. Her tone was much deeper, but her cadence sounded unmistakably like the playful girl Luz knew back on the Boiling Isles. Though this Willow sounded far less playful and much more... mischievous. Borderline malevolent even.</p><p>"You know, if you'd let me warn people before coming to see you, maybe you could get a more natural greeting, huh?" The incredibly tall alternate Gus said in a calm voice. Luz glanced at him, he didn't seem at all surprised by the witch's form. She must have been like this for a while.</p><p>"Oh, what fun would that be? Besides, this <em>is</em> their natural greeting." Willow replied snidely, and a strange reverberating chuckle pulsed through the air. Luz felt Amity curling into her shoulder and she wrapped an arm around her. She looked over at Noceda and Blight, although they seemed to be just as shocked and upset as she and Amity were.</p><p>Luz swallowed and took a deep breath, letting her irritation give her the strength to speak to the looming plant witch. "Hey! Your friends have been really worried about you. Can't you try and be a little nicer?"</p><p>Although Willow's face didn't move enough for Luz to be able to perceive it from a story and a half down, she could <em>feel</em> the witch concentrating on her. The air was thick in here, and she felt like she might suffocate if this Willow were to become angry with her.</p><p>"Well now, this is interesting... you're not from around here at all, are you?" Her voice was light but ominous, and little green feelers were sprouting from the huge twisting vines around them to poke ever so gently at Luz's cheeks and bare ankles. Amity, who was basically trying to merge with her at this point, made a distressed noise in the back of her throat and Luz could see some of the delicate tendrils were prodding at her too.</p><p>She reached over to brush the feelers away from Amity's face, frowning. "No, we're not. And we were hoping you could tell us if you've seen any other witches or demons around that don't belong here as well." She looked down and shifted her foot to push away the feelers that were hovering low around Amity, and they seemed to take the hint and backed off. She didn't make any move to dislodge the ones that were wrapping around her own ankles though, allowing what she assumed was part of the plant witch to investigate her.</p><p>"Hmm." Willow seemed to mull over the request for a moment, and a tendril was trailing over Luz's cheekbone and across the bridge of her nose. She got the uncanny feeling that this was Willow's equivalent of a calculating stare and holding her chin in thought. Not quickly enough, the feelers all pulled away at once and disappeared into the foliage.</p><p>"No. I can see just about everything in Bonesborough from right here and I would definitely have noticed if anyone shared your <em>unique</em> physical properties. " Luz let her breath out slowly. That meant there was a good chance she and Amity were the only ones from their dimension who had been forcibly brought here.</p><p>"Willow.." Luz heard Noceda try to speak, and she felt that heavy sense of attention that weighed down on her shift away and presumably settle on the older teen instead. "How did you... why? I mean, did you..?" She looked completely at a loss.</p><p>The unsettling chuckling floated around the room again before Willow decided to cut in.</p><p>"As entertaining as it is for <em>you</em> to be out of words, Noceda, I do actually have quite a lot I'd like to talk to you about." She then addressed Gus and he tilted his chin up in acknowledgement. "Could you please get them settled in at one of our safe houses?"</p><p>Luz was down-right flabbergasted with how casually Gus accepted the request and really just how undisturbed he was about this whole situation. They were clearly good friends, and although she was nervous of Willow, seeing the trust and acceptance in Gus' face put her more at ease than any explanation or warning he could have given them beforehand would have. Willow was still hella creepy though.</p><p>"Come visit me later when you're ready, Noceda. You can come too, Blight, if you want." She smirked down at them. Luz was sort of glad the invitation wasn't extended to her and Amity; Perhaps this world's version of Willow was nicer than she seemed and she was aware of how intimidating she was to anyone who didn't know her well.</p><p><em>Or maybe she just thinks we don't have anything to offer her, </em>Luz pondered as Gus led them all back down the plant-formed hallway towards the smaller house they had entered originally.</p><p>Once outside, it seemed like Luz wasn't the only one who felt like they could breathe easier.</p><p>"Yeesh, Gus. You know you could have said <em>something</em>." Noceda griped at him, and he shrugged with a guilty little grin. Blight was making a visible effort to settle herself and even Amity was perking up from the distant sort of state she'd fallen into. Luz flexed her hand a few times to get the blood pumping in her arm again once Amity let go.</p><p>"What's a safe house anyways?" Luz asked Gus, who motioned for them to follow him as he led them up the block. There were many more houses along this street and although some of them looked to be in complete disrepair, many of them were still well-maintained.</p><p>"In our case it's where Willow keeps all our most important artifacts, and occasionally guests." He smiled down warmly at her. Although he was very different from the Gus she knew, Luz could see all sorts of familiar traits in him and his easy confidence was doing wonders for her sense of well-being. "I'll hang out in them sometimes when Captain-life gets to be too much and I need some time away from the HGA and all their politics. No one would dare mess with Willow's safe houses, they're all scared of her." He laughed, although hearing it made Luz kind of sad.</p><p>Blight turned a sharp eye on him. "If the people who are supposedly the leaders of this place are afraid of her, why do they leave her in charge of the defenses? All these walls are her doing, aren't they?"</p><p>Luz noticed Noceda watching Gus' reaction curiously and he stopped walking. "We need her, she's the strongest magic-capable witch left in Bonesborough and the main reason we've been able to fend off our enemies this whole time. And they know it." He waved to a few of the houses they were stopped by. "These are the safe houses by the way, that one, the one next to it, and that one across the street." He pointed to each house in turn. Other than the constant presence of vines and other plantlife (although nowhere near as prevalent as with Willow's house) they looked like fairly ordinary Bonesborough-style homes. The one that was looking back at them was a bit creepy though.</p><p>Gus told them they could have their pick, and that all three had running water and comfortable places to bed down. They chose the one that Gus tended to stay in (it apparently had the smallest hoards of powerful and rare relics piled in every room) and then he suggested getting lunch at the Market. That seemed to really hit something home for the older teens. Luz could see Blight watching the houses wistfully as they back-tracked for a while, like she was remembering what the street looked like a long time ago.</p><p>"So, you're a Captain here, what's that about?" Noceda elbowed Gus. He grinned and rubbed his arm then puffed out his chest and placed a hand on the hilt of his sword.</p><p>"In the last couple years I have proven myself in a variety of ways, and the Groaner's council thusly saw my talents as a good fit for our Bonesborough Guard." His grin turned a bit self-depreciating and he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "That and, probably, because I'm one of Willow's few friends and they likely want to keep tabs on her through me."</p><p>Luz was pleasantly surprised to hear Amity finally chip in to the conversation. "If you think they're just using you to spy on her, why would you do it?" Luz pulled a face at the question; her friend just had to sound so suspicious!</p><p>Gus shrugged and regarded Amity with good humour. "If they're gonna spy on her I'd rather it be through me than someone I don't trust." Luz kept an ear on the exchange but took note of their return to the entrance area. They'd basically retraced their steps up to this point but after continuing on through for a few blocks she could see the familiar colourful chaos of Bonesborough Market!</p><p>"-et the wrong impression or anything, they're not bad people. Just, you know. Everyone is really cautious and stuff these days, right?" Luz tuned back in just in time to catch Noceda regarding Gus with a rather admiring expression.</p><p>"You know Gus, you've really come in to your own." The older human said with a quirk of her lips. Then she looked troubled. "You and so many other witches and demons here look to be doing really well with all the magic corruption stuff, kinda makes me wonder how Willow got shafted so hard."</p><p>Gus had a complicated expression and he took a moment to think of his response. Noceda was waiting patiently and Blight was watching him carefully.</p><p>"She's probably the best one to tell you about all that. Her and Viney." Luz was surprised to see Noceda perk up distinctly at the mention of the name. "I don't understand a lot of the specifics myself, but I was never really okay with how much Willow took on in the name of defending this place. She sacrificed too much if you ask me."</p><p>After passing the dividing gates they were suddenly upon throngs of people bustling about the many stalls and huts filled with food and items of all sorts. Appearing very grateful for the distraction, Gus brightened up as and spread his arms in a showy sort of way and announced in a deep voice like he was commentating a festive spectacle, "Welcome, uh, Back to Bonesborough Market!" And boy, <em>was</em> it welcoming!</p><p>Luz didn't need to see the others' faces to know how relieved they felt looking out at the sight of demons and witches going about such pedestrian tasks as buying lunch and haggling over prices for clothes and toys or potions of all kinds. To Luz it was such a nice feeling after just shy of a week of camping and hiking and scary experiences... she couldn't imagine what it must be like for Blight and Noceda who'd been doing those things for months!</p><p>"Ooh! I'mma get me a Not-Dog!" Noceda rounded on Gus so suddenly that one of the locks of hair that hung down by her ear smacked her across the nose, "We can still use snails here right?"</p><p>He chuckled at the hungry look in her eyes, "Actually we've started using a closed currency for the last several months, just put whatever you need on my tab and we can settle up later." Noceda looked like she wanted to protest but Blight linked an arm through hers and yanked her off-balance towards the aforementioned street-meat vendor.</p><p>"Such a gracious offer, so shut up and get your damn Not-Dog."</p><p>Noceda called out a, "thanks Gus!" as she was dragged away, and Luz giggled. The tall witch looked a bit puzzled at the two retreating figures and she thought she could hear him say something like, "Those two got a lot closer since I saw them last."</p><p>He seemed to remember that Luz and Amity were there and he waved a hand to regard the rest of the market. "You guys are welcome to whatever you need as well, just tell the vendor my name if I'm not there with you and they'll know what to do."</p><p>Luz grinned up at him. "Thanks a lot Gus! You know, even though you're different from the Gus from our dimension, you're just as awesome and friendly as he is." He chuckled at the strange compliment, "Thanks, I guess. I doubt I'm gonna get to hear that sort of praise very often."</p><p>They waited for a moment while Noceda got her food and Luz took the chance to clamour on top of some stacked crates and held on to the lamppost while she took in the area from her higher vantage point.</p><p>There weren't nearly as many stalls and vendors as there were on the Boiling Isles, but there was a definite sense of community. Every once in a while she thought she could see someone she recognized! Framing the half of the market that sprawled to what used to be the outskirts of the city was Willow's huge plant wall, reaching up far higher than most of the buildings. Seeing how powerful the plant-witch was, Luz could tell it was a solid defense that helped keep this place safe from feral monsters roaming the roads and woods.</p><p>She jumped down from the crates as Noceda and Blight rejoined them, the former with a Not-Dog clasped in each hand and a third under her arm. She offered one to her and Amity although only Luz took her up on it. She seemed almost disappointed to lose one, but too bad! And hey, it was tasty!</p><p>While the five of them zig-zagged around the various food stalls, they continued to chat. Both Amity and Blight were waiting for different types of what sort of seemed like a salad with a variety of chunks of things and toppings in it being prepared by a wispy demon behind the counter.</p><p>"So you guys have obviously been doing well with keeping on top of the magical corruption. How're you managing that anyways?" Noceda asked Gus between bites of her food.</p><p>Gus swallowed a gulp of his sparkly drink that Luz had immediately wanted the moment she saw him with it. "Well firstly, most witches and demons here aren't allowed to use their magic unless it's an emergency." The pair of green-haired witches rejoined them, laden down with food and drinks, and their group took up a bench and a couple of rickety patio chairs nearby.</p><p>"And that's actually working?" Noceda asked, cocking her head and slouching against the bench. Blight was sitting next to her and seemed to be more interested in the flavours and texture of her food than the conversation.</p><p>"Yeah, for the most part. Once the healing coven members and track students from Hexside got organized, we were able to start putting ourselves back together. I know you used to be friends with Viney, she was pivotal in all that actually." Gus pointed with his cup. Noceda leaned forward eagerly, as did Luz. She had only met Viney a couple times, but she very much liked the young witch who had helped her save Hexside from a rogue Greater Basilisk only weeks ago.</p><p>"She's going to have to tell you more about it, again I'm not really on the up-and-up on how all the healing stuff goes." Gus waved dismissively. "All I know is that using magic is bad and I need to keep as many witches and demons from taxing our healers with unnecessary use as I can."</p><p>"So no one is using magic while they're in Bonesborough?" Luz asked, and sipped the last of her sparkly drink. He gave a sort of "eeh" noise in response and waggled his hand in a so-so gesture.</p><p>"It's more like only the people who <em>need</em> to use magic are using it. Like sometimes when we have to fend off something dangerous that Willow's walls and our weapons can't handle, or when we send out parties to scavenge or collect stuff we need. As long as our healers can do their thing, we'll be fine as long as we don't over-do it. Take me for example, I'm almost completely magic-avoidant even though I've got clearance for it, 'cause I'm just that good." He flashed them all a toothy grin. Luz smiled back and nodded, mostly following along and her eyes drifted down to the sword strapped to Gus' hip. She wondered how often he had to use that.</p><p>"Gus, do you think you could show us where Viney is? I definitely want to check in with her." Noceda asked suddenly, hand gripping her knees and posture tense and eager.</p><p>"I'm way ahead of you. Viney's clinic is just down that way, close to the bridge that leads to the old coliseum." He pointed further along the busy street. Noceda grinned and clapped him on the back. "You're a prince, you know that Gus?"</p><p>"Yeah, I am pretty great." He replied with a wistful smile. Luz could tell that he was thrilled to have his friend back, though she couldn't help wondering how they had parted.</p><p>She didn't get to ponder very long, because they were soon off and passing by yet more stalls and shoppers and carts of supplies. When they came up on the clinic, it was <em>very</em> obvious.</p><p>"Wow, now that's impressive." Luz murmured. The clinic wasn't tall but it ran quite wide, and spread out far behind the building were long closed-in paddocks and stables. Luz could see a variety of creatures milling about their enclosures and behind fences. There was a large wooden standee of an oddly familiar-looking griffin on top of the building with the cheerful accompanying sign that read, 'Viney's Healing Hut'.</p><p>Gus gestured to the building as a whole. "Yeah, normally that kinda real estate would be impossible to afford but Viney has a lot of pull around here, being our chief healer. I know the council would prefer she stop splitting her focus between beasts and people but-" he was interrupted by a strong flinch and he pulled up his sleeve to reveal a pulsing blue band.</p><p>"Shoot, I gotta go check on something. I'll be back soon, Viney will be in there, she's almost never not working." Gus said quickly and then ran off with a wave. Noceda sent a little salute to his back as he disappeared among the citizens. A four-legged beast dragging a cart nearby started braying annoyingly and someone's baby was wailing. Luz saw Blight moving towards the clinic's front door, tugging Noceda by the sleeve and she kinda shared the feeling.</p><p>Inside the clinic was still lively with noise and motion but it wasn't nearly as all-consuming as outside was. There were several witches and demons in here that looked pretty under the weather, and several more who seemed fine but either carried or sat with unhappy-looking pets or livestock. One demon was cooing soothingly at his daughter who was wrapped up in something that looked like a straight-jacket and she appeared to be trying to tear her daddy's arm off with teeth that couldn't reach outside her confining muzzle.</p><p>"Uh, wow, maybe this isn't the best time."  Noceda muttered as she took the place in on a swivel. Luz couldn't see Amity for a moment and she whipped her head around trying to locate her, though it didn't take long. Her friend was staring up at a young woman with pale lime-green hair tied back in a ponytail who was gaping down at her over her clipboard.</p><p>"Amity?" Luz asked as she came over, and that seemed to break the trance the shocked older witch was in.</p><p>"You said Amity? You're Amity Blight? How's that possible, you're so young!" She looked perturbed and her expression got even more confused as Blight and Noceda approached. "Wait, <em>you're</em> Blight. Then who's this? Is she your daughter? Clone? Where have you even <em>been</em>?"</p><p>Luz covered her mouth to hide her grin as Amity immediately took on an cross look and Blight jumped in before she could say anything rude.</p><p>"Hey Amelia. Long story. This a bad time to drop in?" Blight asked, looking carefully bored. It took Luz a moment longer to realize who this new witch was, but she vaguely recalled one of Boscha's friends with short hair of the same colour who had been part of their grudgby match not so long ago. Despite Boscha's attitude, Amelia had actually tried to be a good sport during their game.</p><p>"Uhh, not really. It's always like this. Wow, hey, you here for a heal-up?" Amelia said in a rush and raised her clipboard like she was ready to slot Blight in to the queue. Blight shook her head and Noceda leaned in with a little wave, making Amelia's brows shoot up.</p><p>"Oh wow! You're Noceda! That Noceda! Oh man Viney is gonna want to see you right away, hold on." She spun and slapped her clipboard down on the counter, calling out for someone and a demon's head popped up behind one of the swinging half-doors with an irritated, "What?"</p><p>"Go get Viney, tell her she's gonna want to cut her break short." The witch spoke eagerly and the demon disappeared looking agitated and over-worked. Luz caught Noceda turning to Blight with waggling eyebrows mouthing, "I'm <em>that</em> Noceda" and getting a little shove in response.</p><p>During the few minutes they waited, Blight tried to answer as many questions as she could keep up with from the excitable lime-haired witch until she needed to dash away to help with a patient coming in who appeared to be vomiting tiny versions of himself.</p><p>"Oh shit, Noceda? Wow hey get on back here!"</p><p>Luz saw another half-door swing open and a witch she could only vaguely recognize as the older version of her fellow Troublemaker from Hexside was beckoning them over. She was giving the rest of them a ponderous look as the four of them padded on through the little hall and were led by Viney into what must have been her office.</p><p>"Here, grab a seat, grab a seat." She was motioning to the couch and comfy chairs around the room and she rolled over her wheeled chair out from behind her desk to join them. Luz flopped onto the couch beside Amity and took in the chaos that was supposedly an office.</p><p>Books, files, multiple enclosures and carrying cases along with shelves upon shelves of all sorts of things littered the room. Viney actually knocked over a stack of something while she was bringing her chair over. She was buzzing with excitement, and fidgeting to a degree that was impressive even to Luz.</p><p>"Wow Vines, so you actually got your clinic." Noceda spread out over one of the comfy chairs and kicked one leg over the other, peering around the room with an appraising look. Blight was watching Viney out of the corner of her eye and seemed to be noting how jittery the healer witch was.</p><p>"Yeah, like over a year ago, where have you been." She tucked a stray bit of brown hair that had fallen out of her messy bun behind her pointed ear. Her leg was bouncing rapidly. "Like, seriously, where have you been? Every carrier grifflet I send out looking for you comes back without news, do you not live with Eda anymore?"</p><p>Noceda cringed and replied with, "Eh, lots happened ya know?" though Viney was immediately waving her off with a, "Yeah yeah I get it." She was looking at the rest of them in turn, and her gaze lingered on Blight, quickly checking her from top to bottom with her eyes.</p><p>"Wow, you're a hell of a back-and-forth. It's Blight right? No mistaking that hair. Haven't seen any of you guys around in a while." She whipped back to look at Noceda. "You've been doing her healing?" Her leg stopped bouncing but the other one picked up immediately, her fingers tapping at her knee whether they were connecting or not.</p><p>Amity leaned in towards Luz surreptitiously and said in a quiet voice, "Whatever she's on, you're not allowed any, alright?" Luz nudged her with an elbow and tried not to react.</p><p>"Yeah, we've been using healing glyphs for several months now. Gus told me you guys have been using them here too?"</p><p>Viney was nodding. "Yeah, it was a game-changer, like most people here don't even get it. There's no way we could have kept up a healing regimen with only natural magic to cast spells, not the whole damn city." She glanced at Luz and Amity again, looking them up and down and then focused back on Noceda like they weren't even there. "Honestly if I had realized how important they were like even a few weeks earlier-" She immediately straightened up and clasped her hands in front of her face, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. After a moment she seemed to come back to herself and Noceda was watching her with sympathy in her eyes.</p><p> "Anyways, hope you don't mind if I get to the point here. I need your help, Noceda." She rolled-slash-lunged forward in her chair and grabbed Noceda's hand, clasping it between her own. Luz flinched at the sudden movement and almost reflexively glanced at Blight who, predictably, looked a good deal more tense.</p><p>"Yeah Vines, but what can I do?" Noceda placed her other hand on the vibrating witch's hands and watched her intently.</p><p>"Listen, the glyph we figured out was for a basic healing spell right? Well I've been trying to find a glyph in a stronger healing spell but I can't figure it out by myself and no one else knows glyphs like you do. You gotta stick around and help me make a stronger glyph, 'kay?"</p><p>Even without the intense gaze pinning her, Luz could hear the desperation in Viney's voice. Noceda was nodding at her, wordlessly agreeing although she seemed concerned. "I'll give it a try Vines, maybe I can figure something out okay?"</p><p>"Great! I'll rearrange stuff tomorrow and you can come in and observe all the advanced healing spells. We can do one right now, actually." She whirled around in her chair and Blight flinched back, hard, as the jittering witch turned her attention to her.</p><p>"You don't mind, right? Your bile sac isn't even full and it'll take like a week to get you back to your baseline if you're just using regular healing spells. Or glyphs, same thing." She spoke so fast it was difficult to keep up with her. Luz could tell Amity was fearing for the healing witch's safety, she was reaching out a little and looked like she wanted to interject. Blight looked over at Noceda helplessly.</p><p>"Hey, uh," Noceda got up and crouched next to the worried-looking witch, drawing her golden eyes away from Viney and placing her fingers against her arm gently. Luz strained to hear what she was saying, and somewhere in the back of her head she was gushing over the supportive gesture.</p><p>"I trust her, but if you're not up for this right now that's totally fine. We can even-" Noceda was speaking softly and evenly but Blight interrupted her, looking quite suddenly determined.</p><p>"It's fine." She pushed Noceda away and faced Viney. "You can do it."</p><p>Viney made a little happy clap and she was about to reach out but then pulled back.</p><p>"Hey, any of you have an extra artifact with decent juice in it? I've already done like eight natural heals today and that's pushing it, even for me." Her gaze was flicking between all of them.</p><p>Noceda paused and then reached in to her jacket's breast pocket to pull out a slip of paper that Luz recognized as a power glyph, the same type that Blight had used in their big fight with Hooty and the pig demons.</p><p>"Ooh, that'll do nicely. Don't let Willow catch you with any of these, she'll try to trade them off you in heartbeat. Hell, I'll trade them off you in a heartbeat." Viney took the glyph and inspected it appreciatively. Blight was glaring at Noceda, who was pointedly not looking at her.</p><p>"We're talking about that later." Blight muttered at her, but Luz's attention swiftly turned to Viney as she twirled a hand and brought up a spellcircle. Amity launched off of the couch to watch more closely, and Luz was right behind her.</p><p>Viney was sitting up straight in her rolling chair and the spellcircle around her left wrist glowed brighter as the power glyph in her right hand began to levitate, surrounded in the same glow. She clenched her left fist and the power glyph started burning up and leaving behind a very bright ball of light. Luz had to throw her hand up to block some of it out.</p><p>"Okay, I'm gonna do the advanced heal spell now. You watching, Noceda?" Viney said evenly, and with the expected confirmation she cancelled her spellcircle and spun another one up instead. She made a second one for her other wrist and the bright light split into two smaller lights that settled around her hands and then dimmed down into a beautiful golden glow. Luz could barely keep track of what was going on, she wasn't sure how Noceda was supposed to pick out a glyph from any of this.</p><p>Viney reached out with both sets of middle and index fingers and they hovered near Blight's forehead and just below her collarbone. Blight looked like she was trying her hardest not to lash out and bolt for the hills.</p><p>"Okay, here we go. Blight you might find this a bit jarring so buckle up." And without any further ado, the brown-haired witch cast her healing spell.</p><p>The twin golden glows brightened for a few seconds and then sank into Blight's body, pulsing over her like a pair of stones disturbing a quiet pond. There was a rushing noise, or maybe a tinkling sort of sound, it was hard to tell, and Luz could hear Blight vocalizing but she couldn't tell what she said over the noise of the spell.</p><p>The lights were gone, and Luz was blinking away all the flashing after-images her brain was convinced she was still seeing. "Uh, everyone alright?" She rubbed her eyes and looked around. Viney was focusing on Blight, who was sitting lax in her chair with her pupils blown wide. Noceda and Amity were rubbing their eyes like Luz had been.</p><p>"Didja get anything from that?" Viney asked Noceda eagerly.</p><p>Noceda was rubbing hard at her face while she replied with a grumpy, "Yeah, no. And I'm gonna need sunglasses if we're going to be doing that a lot tomorrow." Viney pouted for a second, then shrugged. "I guess it'd be way too easy to have it on the first go. 'Kay, tomorrow the real work begins!" She got up and wheeled her chair back behind her desk and started scribbling something down in a journal almost frantically. "You know, your slow but consistent regimen is pretty interesting for the amount of magic she seems to use on the average. I'd love to get a closer look at you sometime, Blight."</p><p>The older green-haired witch was blinking hard and searching blindly with her hand until it found Noceda's jacket and latched on. Someone started knocking on the office door rather insistently and Viney cheerfully shouted, "Shut up, I'll be with you in a minute!"</p><p>She flipped her journal closed and came back over, glancing at Amity and then making like she was about to inspect Blight closer but then focused back on Amity.</p><p>"Okay that's odd on like, several levels." She muttered, and then after a moment seemed to decide what her focus was and she pressed a couple fingers to Blight's forehead. Apparently satisfied with whatever she was perceiving, she moved away and went back to her desk to grab up a few things, still chattering a mile a minute.</p><p>"Yeah, like, you would have been spending the next week targeting her head trying to keep her not crazy-coo-coo and I'll bet all those bone spurs would have come back in the meantime. Also yikes, I don't envy you those, Blight." Luz could see Amity's eyes widen and she was mouthing the words, 'bones spurs', suddenly looking ill.</p><p>Viney stopped at the door with her hand on the doorknob, looking at them. "I gotta get back to the grind, but you guys can chill in here if you need a moment. Noceda you'll come in tomorrow, yeah?" She pinned the teen with an intensely eager gaze.</p><p>"Yeah, yeah Vines I'll be here." Noceda replied a little distractedly and Viney was out the door in a second with an, "Awesome, see you then!" thrown over her shoulder. When the door closed it felt like the world slowed to a crawl.</p><p>"Thundering Titan how does she keep up with herself?" Amity sat down in one of the chairs looking exhausted. Her fidgeting told Luz that Viney's last comment to the older green-haired witch was definitely leaving an impression. She stood close to Amity in case she felt the need to comfort her although she focused over to where Blight was sitting with Noceda kneeling beside her.</p><p>"How is she?" Luz asked tentatively.</p><p>"<em>She</em>, is fine." Blight answered before Noceda could. She sat up straighter in her chair and rubbed at her temples, then opened her eyes and found the older human watching her carefully. She let her breath out hard through her nose, and after a few seconds poked Noceda on the forehead.</p><p>"You have some weird friends."</p><p>Noceda's lips quirked up into an incredulous smile that she seemed to be trying to rein in, unsuccessfully. She crossed her arms on the arm of the chair and lay her head on them, content to just look up at Blight for the time being. The witch held her gaze with a softness creeping into her expression and the two appeared almost frozen for a moment.</p><p>Suddenly, dozens of different occurrences from the past week flashed through Luz's mind in rapid succession and her jaw dropped. Her hand lifted just a bit to point at the two older teens, although none of them took notice of it.</p><p><em>Is that what love looks like?  </em>Some part of her was squeeing and flailing but the rest of her just joined in the quiet shock her face displayed. She slowly turned to look at Amity, still pointing, and Amity was looking up at her from her seat with the flattest expression she was capable of. It clearly read as, 'Oh, <em>now</em>  you get it.'</p><p>Luz managed to put her finger away before the older teens could see and question her about it but she couldn't do a thing about the face-splitting smile she now wore. <em>That makes <strong>so</strong> much sense! </em></p><p>Blight drew a deep breath and got up, followed swiftly by Noceda and the older witch rose an eyebrow at Luz. "What?"</p><p>"Nothing!" She chirped, probably too loudly but whatever, "Just happy for you is all."</p><p>She didn't look entirely convinced, but she didn't say anything further on the matter. Noceda was looking at her curiously now, but didn't comment.</p><p>"So it looks like you have an interesting day ahead of you tomorrow." Amity broke the odd but not uncomfortable silence. She was looking at Noceda and she nodded a bit.</p><p>"Yeah, actually. Wow, I really hope we can get that to work. I never even thought of trying to find a stronger healing glyph." She looked almost timid, but inspired as well. She glanced at Blight, taking her in. The witch tilted her head towards the door in a silent prompt for them to get a move on. "I haven't seen a powerful healing spell since... well I don't even know." She shook her head and seemed to be thinking about events of the past.</p><p>"Anything I can do to help?" Luz asked as she grasped the door handle and opened it, letting the general noise of the clinic come rushing back to their ears. Noceda shrugged as she passed by and out into the hall sounding a bit distracted as she replied, "Maybe. I'll check it out tomorrow and see."</p><p>They made their way back to the open front room and Noceda shot a chipper thank-you to Amelia as they went by, adding a, "see you tomorrow!" that netted her a pleasantly-confused look which she snickered at.</p><p>Outside the clinic they were going to wait for Gus to return, but he was already back and looking like he was trying to politely exit a conversation with a very animated old demon. When he noticed them standing nearby and Luz tried waving at him, that seemed to be enough to prompt him to gently cut his new companion off and he jogged over to them with a relieved look on his face.</p><p>"Hey guys, how'd it go? Did you get a chance to see Viney?" He asked Noceda, looking hopeful.</p><p>"Yeah, and I'll be back tomorrow to see if we can figure out some more advanced healing stuff. Thanks for patching us through, Gus." Seeing her genuine smile made Luz smile even bigger. Blight looked so much more <em>refreshed</em>.</p><p>"No problem. Hey, you guys have any pressing matter you need to get to right now?" He asked and looked at each of them with an eager glint in his eye. Luz exchanged looks with the others and Noceda shrugged, which apparently gave Gus full permission to grin widely and look very proud of himself.</p><p>"Excellent. Then it's <em>my</em> turn to show you where I work." He clapped his hands and rubbed them almost maniacally.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"Sir!"</p><p>Another small group of witches and demons halted in their tracks to acknowledge and salute Gus. That was the third one since they had entered the 'Trainee Headquarters'.</p><p>"Okay, damn. So you're in charge of all this?" Noceda asked incredulously, eyeing the sprawling base of operations. Amity was surprised at how different the place looked compared to her last time here (or well, her dimension's version of 'here' anyways.)</p><p>It had been a multi-purpose recreational facility once; Various sports fields, swimming pools, gyms and other specialized arenas and rooms that were located as a collective in the heart of Bonesborough's central residential area. Although the buildings were in the same layout, the purpose of the whole area had clearly been changed from fun activities and exercise to a decidedly more military feel and <em>lots</em> of exercise.</p><p>There were dozens, maybe hundreds of people populating the base. Groups were running laps along the various tracks and others were training with weapons or just their bodies. Gus was both referred to and referring to others by a great variety of terms such as 'Captain', 'Private' and 'Lieutenant' although Luz had whispered to her that she thought the tall witch was taking extreme liberties with what was apparently human combat force ranks.</p><p>"As Captain of the Guard it is within my realm of responsibilities to see that we have a well-trained force capable of defending our city against any threat we might receive!" Gus stated proudly, puffing up his chest and nearly strutting as he showed them around.</p><p>"What sorts of threats have you received?" Amity asked him, eyeing a pair of witches who were locked in a fierce battle with wooden swords.</p><p>Gus seemed to temper off his enthusiasm a bit with the question, although he still sounded very resolved when he replied. "We face all sorts of challenges here, inside and out. Willow's walls protect us from a lot of rogues and deranged beasts but we have to go outside often to gather supplies or guide in trades people and travellers. Also sometimes our own people can get, you know.." He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "A bit out of hand if their corruptions have gotten bad enough."</p><p>Blight seemed to regard Gus with a sharp but considering glance at that last part. "What do you do with someone who's out of control?"</p><p>Gus stopped and looked at her evenly. Then he smiled reassuringly. "We do our best to subdue anyone who's endangering them self or others and get them to either the HGA medics or Viney's clinic as soon as we can for advanced healing." He turned to Noceda who was watching him with an impressed look. "Between banning the use of non-essential magic for the average citizen and keeping up with non-magical forms of combat we've come a long way from when this whole mess started two years ago." He stated proudly.</p><p>"It's like you have a whole army here, you guys can probably fend off just about anything!" Luz was watching as yet another group of demons and witches were being run through rigorous drills by a strict-looking demon. While the group were in clothing made for exercise, the demon leading them was in full armour. Many of the higher-ranked people seemed to have a rougher look to them, and Amity had a sneaking suspicion there were a lot of mercenaries and bounty hunters employed in leadership positions here. Which would make sense she supposed, as they would have already been used to a tougher lifestyle even before society was shaken to its foundations.</p><p>"Well, we're doing our best, but we'd have a way better time keeping everyone fed and supplied if we didn't have all those freakin' boar demons hounding everything that moves." Even the very mention of them seemed to sour Gus' mood and Noceda immediately rounded on him.</p><p>"What is the deal with those things? Do you know where they're coming from? I know there wasn't some lost population of them before all this happened, so how the hell are there so many?" It made plenty of sense to Amity that the older human would be so passionate about the origins of the boar demons, considering her fatal history with them and the several harrowing encounters they'd had since getting anywhere close to Bonesborough.</p><p>"Yeah, we're pretty sure by this point that they're not real demons." Gus replied, and that had everyone's attention pretty quickly.</p><p>"They sure felt real when they were chasing me the other day." Amity muttered, recalling the boars that she led into the fight with Hooty to distract him and free Blight. Many times during their fight they had gotten too close to hitting or charging right in to her.</p><p>Gus whirled a hand about, putting his thoughts in order for them before he continued. "I mean, yeah they're real in the sense that they're flesh and bone, but from what we've been able to learn about them, we think they're just cheap clones." He crossed his arms, looking pensive. "We think they probably aren't born naturally since we never see any young ones and the few we've tried to talk to don't want anything other than violence. Plus they mutate really fast. Willow thinks their bodies are made almost entirely out of magic."</p><p>"Have you tried healing spells on them?" Noceda asked, although she looked conflicted about the very thought of using magic for the well-being of one of those monsters.</p><p>"Yep. And it's a huge waste. They don't get any better, only worse. And we can't take them into consideration as a possible food source since their bodies are so magically potent they'd significantly corrupt anything that eats part of them. We even have to watch where we dispose of the bodies since it affects the plants and soil around them if we aren't careful."</p><p>Amity flinched when Noceda clapped her hands aggressively like she'd reached an epiphany and she looked at the rest of them with decided conviction. "That's probably why Hooty was so messed up! Who knows how many of those things he ate?"</p><p>Gus looked perturbed by the comment. "Uhh, like Hooty the annoying demon from the Owl House or are we talking about a different Hooty?" He looked a bit wary, and blanched when Noceda shook her head and confirmed it was indeed the same Hooty.</p><p>"Yeah, that whole experience wasn't fun. We ended up having to fight him off and attracted dozens of those pig demons." She almost growled. Gus's jaw dropped. "Dozens?! That's insane, those things are dangerous! How did you get away from them?"</p><p>Blight snorted, drawing his attention. "The expenditure of magic. A lot of it." Amity noticed that Noceda didn't exactly look impressed with her smug tone. Oddly enough, Gus didn't either.</p><p>"You know they're attracted to magic right? If you were fighting them off just using spells then you probably were making the whole thing a lot harder on yourselves."</p><p>The green-haired witch raised a eyebrow at him. "And you would handle a group of that size with what, swords and a plucky attitude?" She eyed the weapon at his hip critically. Gus seemed to size her up and Amity detected a twinkle in his eye.</p><p>"You doubt my combat abilities? There's quite a bit more to surviving around here than just blast first and let the healers sort it out later. You need a tough body and mind to keep up with our kind of challenges day in and day out."</p><p>Blight crossed her arms and tilted her head somewhat, sizing up the taller witch right back and squaring her shoulders stubbornly. Gus was nearly smirking and if Amity could detect him baiting her on then surely Blight could as well?</p><p>"Why don't you show me what you're made of then?" Blight levelled Gus with a challenging grin. Amity could feel her expression flatten. <em>Aaand there it is.</em></p><p>Luz was suddenly a flurry of motion, "Wait, wait guys we're all friends here! There's no need for-" But Amity reached out and laid a hand calmly on her arm, prompting Luz to look at her with a mixture of worry and curiosity. She shook her head sagely and Luz looked a bit lost, turning to Noceda for any kind of guidance. Unfortunately for her, the older teen was far too intrigued by the sudden spike of competitiveness to notice.</p><p>Gus returned Blight's grin with interest. Blight narrowed her eyes in response.</p><p>"Alright. A quick round of sparring it is. I'll show you where we hold our training matches." He said lightly, deceptively so.</p><p><em>Oh boy</em>, Amity thought, and gulped with, admittedly, a touch of excitement. <em>Here we go.</em></p><p> </p><p>        Word that their captain was going to spar one-on-one with an 'outsider' spread around the training base with dizzying speed. Amity found herself on the side-lines with Luz who was definitely not seeing the appeal of the whole situation.</p><p>"But why do they have to fight, don't we do enough of that just to not get killed between one place and the next?" Luz was trying to make a case to her, but honestly, Amity thought it would be really good for all of them to see more of the merits of combat without magic. After all, they still had no sure way home yet and it wasn't like their magic use was cleanly solving every problem for them.</p><p>"Noceda how are you fine with this? Aren't you worried about them hurting each other?" Luz was tugging on the older girl's arm. Noceda shrugged, though she was barely taking her eyes off of Blight as she entered the corded-off arena.</p><p>"Luz, she's more clear-headed right now than she's been in a long while. You might not see it because you don't know her like I do, but if she wants to have some fun without deadly consequences hanging in the balance, then who am I to stop her?" Despite Noceda's words though, Amity was sensing some unease in her especially when she managed to tear her eyes off of Blight to look around at the gathering crowd of eager spectators. Likewise, despite her confidence from earlier when she was challenging Gus, even Blight herself looked a bit more humble now with dozens of faces pointed her way.</p><p>"Alright. So how about a basic sparring session, no magic obviously, and we go to first submission?" Gus asked in a direct but calm voice as he climbed into the arena. It was a raised square platform with poles in each corner and ropes looping around the outside twice, forming a sort of barrier to keep fighters from falling out too easily.</p><p>Blight seemed to be tuning out the chattering and occasional whoop of excitement from the crowd of on-lookers. Amity recognized that almost tranquil quality to her that she herself would feel when she needed to focus on something very important and wasn't totally confident about the execution of. Perhaps Noceda had been right.</p><p>
  <em>She may have rushed into the fight, but she's treating this seriously and forming a strategy up there. Nothing here is purely reactive like when I've seen her facing an enemy.</em>
</p><p>Amity felt guilty all of a sudden. She'd kind of, sort of, maybe just a bit... been hoping that Blight would get in over her head and get a little humility drilled into her. Not because she'd snuggled up with Luz last night, <em>obviously</em>, but because she relied on magic too much. She over-uses it! And it affects all of their safety when she does. Win or lose, learning more about magic-less combat was only helpful to her and their little group as a whole.</p><p>Amity snuck a glance at Luz who was twiddling her thumbs anxiously as she watched the two older teens settle their match terms and she felt her cheeks heat up a bit in shame. Luz was genuinely worried for Blight and Gus and here she was looking forward to what, petty revenge? It hadn't even been Blight's fault, right? Though she didn't seem sorry about over-doing it with that huge abomination... but still... argh! Maybe if she spoke up they would call it off..?</p><p>Her head jerked up at the sound of the crowd getting rowdy, and any thoughts she might have been forming to try and deescalate the match were clearly out the window because the two older witches had already begun.</p><p>Blight had her arms out and was circling slowly to the right while Gus copied her steps and kept a close eye out for any sudden movements. Getting to actually see her up close like this, Amity could appreciate just how <em>liquid</em> Blight's steps were. She had kept her black shirt from last night but switched her long pants out for tight-fitting shorts which showed off her strong leg muscles as she seamlessly shifted her weight from one foot to the other.</p><p>Gus was wearing a thick sleeveless tunic and long pants which might provide Blight with some holds if she could avoid getting caught up in his arms. He was easily a foot taller than her and thusly had an advantage when it came to reach. Amity had no way to tell who was stronger, but where the tall witch clearly had more weight, Blight was sure to be faster.</p><p>She darted in; and like Amity expected, she was <em>lightning </em>fast. Blight attempted a solid kick to his mid-section probably just to test Gus' reflexes. He batted her leg aside with his right arm and she spun out of reach although he didn't try to make a grab for her. He was holding his arms in closer to his neck now; Where she'd found his reflexes to be fine<em> he'd</em> apparently got a pretty good idea of how high she could kick from the ease of that one attempt.</p><p>Gus rushed her, and to the crowd's shock she let him in and they were suddenly grappling.</p><p>"Someone's confident." Gus grinned, bearing down on her with brute strength.</p><p>"Just checking if all these muscles aren't for show." Blight replied, although the exertion in her voice from not allowing herself to be pushed down was obvious.</p><p>Amity wasn't quite sure how she managed it but Gus pitched forward suddenly as Blight went lax and hooked her foot behind his ankle. She pulled hard with her leg and actually slipped under him as he crumpled and had to duck into a roll to not simply face-plant. Somewhere beside her Amity heard Luz gasp, but then let her breath back out when Gus got out of his roll looking no worse for wear.</p><p>"Slippery little-"</p><p>Crouched down as he was, the wide kick aimed at his head would have likely ended the match right there if it had successfully connected. Thankfully for Gus though, his reaction was quick enough.</p><p>Throwing up his right arm to block and his left hand and leg to brace against the ground, he managed to bring Blight's kick to a full stop. Amity's jaw dropped at how much force he was able to take from his precarious position, and clearly Blight hadn't expected him to react so fast because her momentary lapse let him swivel his blocking arm under her leg and hold tight. As he stood up she was trapped, forced to balance on her right leg while his height forced her left so high she was nearly doing a vertical split.</p><p>The crowd of onlookers was hollering now but Amity couldn't take her eyes off the pair to see how Luz or Noceda were reacting.</p><p>Blight took a swing at his face with her right fist which he effortlessly knocked wide. She grabbed his arm holding her leg with her left and hoisted herself right off the ground, forcing him to let go and throw her off unless he wanted to take a knee to the stomach.</p><p>When she landed he didn't give her time to gain a decent stance and bullied her into the rope barrier with a series of swings. She'd blocked the first but dodged the rest, apparently not confident about matching his upper body strength.</p><p>He didn't get to keep her there as she ducked out of being pinned, using Gus's height against him by merit of ghosting along the floor too low to grab. Unfortunately though, she was forced to stay low as Gus kept right on her, ready to push her off-balance if she took the chance to stand.</p><p>After a few seconds she tried to straighten up and Gus decided to make a grab for her instead. She wouldn't have gotten far if she tried to throw a punch but it looked like instinct reacted too hard at his bold move and she swung instead with fingers wide.</p><p>Sharp claws whistled an inch from Gus' nose and he had to launch awkwardly to the left to avoid getting raked across the face. Several demons and witches in the crowd booed while the rest got even rowdier and Amity could hear Luz's frightened hiss and Noceda cursing, though she couldn't tell whom it was directed at.</p><p>The two combatants squared up and matched intense looks.</p><p>"If you're going to fight dirty I'm not gonna hold back, Blight." Gus said evenly. He had that same twinkle in his eye that Amity had noticed earlier when he was practically goading her into the fight.</p><p>The green-haired witch snorted and quirked her top lip in a humourless grin, showing off a fang in the process.</p><p>"It was kind of an accident, but now you've got me all interested." She snapped back. Amity mentally face-palmed as Blight fell for the taunt and she dashed forward, all ten claws brandished and set to intimidate.</p><p>There was no bluff to call; Gus stood his ground and she faltered a step. She immediately tried to correct and at least recover her momentum for a palm strike but Gus reached across to grab her right arm with his right hand. He got all five claws from her left dug into his arm for the trouble but the damage was done.</p><p>Spinning and curling his arm in let Gus draw her right up to his chest, reach around Blight and snatch her left hand to pry her nails out and now he had both of her arms in his iron grip. They wrestled; her trying to wiggle out of his grasp and him drawing his arms tighter around her. Because he had her shoulder almost center to his chest she wasn't able to twist and kick at him with any real force and he was too mindful of his own footwork to let her trip him.</p><p>Amity was pretty sure the match was over but Blight wasn't ready to throw in the towel yet. She dug in her heels and fruitlessly tried to throw him over her shoulder; she was strong enough to do it but he wasn't giving her the opening and every second he was wrenching their arms higher. She would basically be choke-holding herself in a moment. Gus was drawn up to his full height and Blight was barely balancing on the balls of her feet, her back arched and the tensing muscles of her abdomen peeking out between the hem of her shirt and the top of her shorts.</p><p>Amity could barely make out Gus' words to her over the dozens of excited demons and witches; "You can make a go for my knees but I will slam you, fair warning."</p><p>Time seemed to dilate and Amity genuinely wasn't sure if Blight was going to attempt something last-ditched to try and break free. She was gasping around the double ring of arms encircling her neck and her wide golden eyes were shifting rapidly. Gus' right arm was bleeding freely from the five deep cuts and red was dribbling down his arm and onto Blight's clothing, although he didn't seem to even notice the pain. His expression was deeply focused, determined not to let her slip out of the hold.</p><p>With a near-deafening roar from the crowd that forced Amity to cover her poor ears, Blight relaxed and Gus let her down. She rubbed at her throat and he was saying something to her as he held out a hand sportingly. She looked like she wasn't going to take it at first but thankfully she did, and they shook to signal the good-natured ending of the match.</p><p>Both teens were practically mobbed while climbing down from the platform, covered in shoulder pats and claps on the back for a good show. Their audience had grown even larger since they started and many of the younger members were gaping up at them both, completely star-struck.</p><p>Amity got separated from Luz in the surge but she did see Gus who was ambushed by a stern-looking demon with pale green skin and an eye-patch. They exchanged a few words and Gus seemed to be looking for someone, and when he did, Amity was able to head the same way to find Noceda.</p><p>"-probably tomorrow, later Gus!" Noceda almost had to shout over the crowd for Gus to hear her and with a friendly wave from him he then <em>did</em> shout over the crowd, as well as the demon with an eye-patch, which had the group scattering back to their respective drills and duties.</p><p>Amity caught Gus' retreating form with the sturdy-looking demon fast-walking away beside him and suddenly found herself back with Noceda, Blight and Luz next to the abandoned fighting ring.</p><p>Blight was sweating and breathing deeply, although where Amity had expected her to look angry, she just appeared worn out. Luz was bouncing around them all going 80-words-per-second and Noceda was looking Blight up and down and completely flushed right up to her round ears.</p><p>"What?" The older witch looked sort of taken aback by the red-faced attention Noceda had on her and she stammered, "I-uuh, you did great up there! I mean, you got totally, <em>handled</em>, sure, but um-!" She abruptly cut herself off, as if realizing that the comment might not fly well, but inexplicably Blight just blushed in response and her eyes were wide.</p><p>Noceda looked down at Blight's twitching fingers and she captured that hand, looking up at her face again and somehow Blight got even more red. Noceda was suddenly speaking to Luz.</p><p>"You guys know how to get back to the safe house right?" She said in a rush, and Luz nodded while blinking quickly and suddenly Noceda was nearly dragging Blight away.</p><p>Before they were out of sight they were both half-stumbling half-running and it sounded like Noceda was giggling like crazy.</p><p>Luz just stared after them in confusion. She looked to Amity like she would have all the answers, but the witch <em>knew </em>she was blushing up to her pointy ears and frantically shook her head at Luz's questioning expression.</p><p>Amity snatched the human's hand and led her in the opposite direction towards the Market. Luz kept flipping her increasingly befuddled gaze between her and where the older teens had disappeared.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>The pastry screeched as Luz bit into it. Even though she'd been expecting it, well... she might not get any more of these.</p><p>Amity didn't seem to have any trouble with her eye-scream-scones, and she'd already polished off two from the little half-carton they bought. <em>Maybe I'll just share the rest of mine with Blight and Noceda,</em> Luz thought to herself and sneakily ditched the rest of her snack behind a "BUY-SELL-TRADE!" sign for some critter to finish off.</p><p>Owlbert made a soft chittering noise that sounded suspiciously like a snicker. She sent the bird who was perched on her shoulder a look, but his little head was twisting this way and that, innocently looking everywhere else but her.</p><p>"You know, like this, it's kind of like we're back home." Amity said as she wiped off her fingers and the corners of her mouth with a napkin. <em>So dainty. </em>"I'd normally be doing homework in my room right now, but this seems like what a typical evening in the market would be like if you ask me."</p><p>The sky was taking on some deeper tones as the day began to bleed into dusk. The shadows between the stalls and not-yet-lit street lamps and people doing some late shopping were getting longer by the minute. Luz thought it was gorgeous, of course, and walking around with Amity was always fun!</p><p>"Right around now I'd probably be..." Luz thought for a moment, curling a knuckle under her lip. "Helping Eda close up her stall for the day and grabbing some dinner on the way back to the Owl House." She nodded; sounded about right. Well.. "That is assuming we weren't running from Emperor's Coven guards, or wrapped up in some wild hijinks or some other crazy thing."</p><p>Amity chuckled. "I thought Eda was supposed to be teaching you magic?" Luz 'hmm-ed' and shrugged, mindful of her shoulder passenger. He may be able to talk to Amity but Luz gave head-pats and kisses so he stayed with her, heehee!</p><p>"Yeah, our lessons are kinda few and far in-between. But now that I'm going to Hexside, I'm learning plenty! Hey, maybe <em>you</em> should show me some of your spells sometime!" Luz then quickly added, "I mean, you know when we're back and you can use magic without worrying again."</p><p>Amity nodded. "I'd like that, Luz." She got quiet and had that far-away look Luz knew she got when she was thinking about something that made her kinda sad but wasn't sure if she was allowed to talk about it. She also kept looking east, where the sky was darkening.</p><p>Luz nudged her ever-so-gently with her shoulder. "Whatcha thinking about Amity?" The witch pursed her lips as she thought for a moment, then looked at Luz with a soft expression that wasn't necessarily happy, but not upset or anything.</p><p>"It's just... in a way, this almost feels more like home than home does. But that's ridiculous, we're always in danger here." Her brows furrowed, possibly frustration.</p><p>Luz looked around at the relative peace of the market. "We're not in danger right now."</p><p>She shrugged. "I know, but.. it seems weird that I feel like I'm home right now just because everything looks normal. But I never really go out in the evenings, how would I even know what 'normal' around here looks like?"</p><p>"Well, are you happy?" Luz asked, tilting her head to the side quizzically. Amity looked confused at the question so Luz elaborated. "Like, right now are you happy?"</p><p>The green-haired witch blinked. "I, guess so? Yeah, I can say I'm happy right now."</p><p>Luz nodded encouragingly. It felt really nice to hear her say it actually. "Then maybe that's it. You're happy, so you feel like you're home! I feel like that a lot at the Owl House."</p><p>Amity seemed to be searching for words and was fiddling with the edge of the pastry carton she was holding.</p><p>"Amity?"</p><p>"I'm not sure that it's the same for me." Luz wasn't sure what to make of that, so she waited for Amity to say more but her friend appeared kinda stuck.</p><p>"Are you... not happy when you're home?"</p><p>She looked east again, making Luz wonder what kept drawing her thoughts and then she was looking at her again. It seemed like the witch was searching her eyes for something. Then she looked away.</p><p>"Not really."</p><p>Luz walked a little closer to her, hoping the closeness would be comforting and not oppressive. She couldn't always tell when she was coming off as over-bearing but she hoped she wasn't right now. "Wanna tell me why? Maybe if you can figure out why you're not happy then you can make home feel more like home."</p><p>Amity looked like she hadn't considered the thought, and it gave Luz confidence to keep going. "Or look at it from a different angle, what are some things that make you happy?" The witch blinked slowly and seemed to mull over the question.</p><p>"I like it when my parents tell me I did a good job. I guess I'm happy when Emira and Edric aren't bugging me."</p><p>Luz stroked her chin. "So when you're getting along with your family, you're happy?" Though Amity furrowed her brows at the question. "Maybe that isn't it."</p><p>The witch was tracing her thumb over the covering of the remaining snacks. Luz perked up with a sudden thought. "You look happy when you're drawing!"</p><p>Amity blushed, which was always cute but Luz had to focus!</p><p> "I-I guess. I like drawing. I like reading. I'm happy when I'm reading something I like."</p><p>Luz leaned in and with a sly grin on her lips. "Like the Good Witch Azura...?"</p><p>Amity ducked her head a bit and raised her shoulders like that would hide her little smile. "Like the Good Witch Azura." She said with a sort of falsely begrudging agreement. <em>Score!</em> She was feeling more comfortable with opening up. Press the advantage!</p><p>"What else?"</p><p>"Hmm?"</p><p>"What else makes you happy?" Luz bounced ahead a couple steps so she could walk backwards and watch Amity's face while they spoke. "What's something else that makes you feel good, something that you want more of? If you can find out what those things are, then you can work towards getting them. To me, that's what home is."</p><p>Amity was giving her a funny look, though she couldn't tell if it was for what she said or the fact that she almost plowed into someone because she wasn't watching where she was going.</p><p>"Home is... finding things that make you happy?" She said with skepticism in her voice.</p><p>"Yeah!"</p><p>"What about your home, back in the human realm? Are you happy even though you're so far away from it?" She asked pointedly. Luz spun around to walk forward again while she pondered the question.</p><p>"I miss my mom. Mami makes me happy. Usually," She snickered, but then pursed her lips in thought. There were so many things her mom didn't approve of her doing, or parts of herself that she liked but seemed to make life harder for her mom. "Sometimes we don't see things eye-to-eye." Amity waited while she pieced together her thoughts.</p><p>"But even if we don't always agree, I could be anywhere with my mom, and that would be home to me. If Mami came and lived here I wouldn't even have a reason to go back to the human realm at all!" The very thought was sweet enough to make her hop along on one foot for a few steps, just to dispel the energy it gave her. Imagine if they were to get a little cottage and live next to Eda!</p><p>"What about where you grew up?" Amity looked shocked at the easy disregarding of her realm. Luz shrugged.</p><p>"That's just a house. There's a lot more things on the Boiling Isles that make me happy, and I feel like I'm home when I'm there." Her shoulders slumped a little like they always did when she considered the inevitable conclusion to her journey. "When I find a way back to my mom I'm going to be really sad, because I don't want to leave the Boiling Isles." Amity looked a little anxious although Luz was too focused to fully notice. "Heck, I feel so much better here, going back to my own world is going to feel like I'm taking a vacation <em>away</em> from home."</p><p>"Luz..."</p><p>"That probably sounds really bad. I love my mom but... there's not really much else for me where she is. I don't fit in there." She shrugged again. Her classmates didn't like her, the teachers always seemed to be upset with her and the only career goal she would consider involved immersing herself in things that were so far removed from the world she lived in and then writing about it to an audience who might not even appreciate it.</p><p>Amity seemed to be considering her words and spoke slowly, like she wasn't confident about how her question would be received. "If you like it here better, maybe you could stay on the Boiling Isles and when you miss your mom, you could go visit her?"</p><p>Luz chuckled. "Oh Amity, I can't do that! She's my <em>mom. </em> Of course I have to stay with her. At least until I'm old enough to live on my own, I guess." Amity nodded like she understood although for some reason a shadow of defeat passed over her features. It made her look tired.</p><p>"Hey!" A thought struck Luz just then, an epiphany even! "Maybe I could move to the Boiling Isles when I'm more grown up and I can live wherever I want! I could have my own house and stay here! Like you said, I could just go visit my mom whenever I want to see her. You could do the same thing!"</p><p>"What?" Amity's eyes widened but Luz was in her face, she needed Amity to share in the feeling she was getting.</p><p>"When you're old enough to live on your own, Amity! You can make your home wherever makes you happy. You can do the things you like, have the people who make you the happiest with you.. you'd still need a job, 'cause you need money. But yeah, you can make your own home." It seemed so obvious, why hadn't she seen it before? Maybe she and Amity could even...</p><p>In tandem with Luz's growing reassurance, Amity looked rather floored. "I can make my own home," she murmured.</p><p>The witch went quiet for a moment, and in the dying light of the sun Luz carefully examined her face as Amity tensed up like she was about to say something monumental. She stared at Luz with something akin to terrified hope if that made any sense and her mouth was moving like she was trying to find the words. Then she seemed to rein herself in and looked away, not ready to share whatever her own epiphany was yet. She still had a little smile on her face though.</p><p>For some reason Luz felt a profound pang of disappointment, but she chalked it up to curiosity being foiled. Though Amity seemed to be feeling much more positive now than when they had first brought up the topic about her home, so that was a definite win.</p><p>"Hey!"</p><p>Luz tensed up and Amity nearly dropped her carton with the remaining scones inside as someone came up on them. The tall figure was difficult to fully make out in the criss-crossing rays coming from the lit streetlamps. Luz hadn't noticed it had gotten so late!</p><p>The tall witch or demon spoke in a stern but not entirely unkind voice. "It's nearly after dark, and the Night Market is going to open soon. This isn't a place for kids, go home!"</p><p>Quite spooked, they quickly located the silhouette of the hundreds-of-feet-tall mutant tree where Willow and her safe houses were and they scrambled off, giggling at their own unintentional audacity.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Blight was chewing a bite from her sandwich and giving Noceda a funny look.</p><p>She had a little smear of something close to the corner of her mouth and Noceda couldn't take her eyes off of it. She leaned in and kissed the witch right on target, thoroughly cleaning off the bit of whatever ingredient from her sandwich it had been and delighting in the little noise Blight made while she tried to swallow her food. Noceda didn't give up her new position on the bench they were sharing, perfectly content to stay mashed up against the green-haired witch, completely ignorant of the looks they were getting from the evening shoppers picking up their items before the market closed and the Night Market was due to open.</p><p>"You are so weird." Blight muttered, blushing with the attention but not pushing her away. Noceda was resting her chin on her shoulder and shifted just enough to look at Blight's hand holding the rest of her sandwich.</p><p>"Tasty. Gimme some."</p><p>Noceda actually thought she was going to facilitate the request but as the sandwich neared their faces Blight just took another bite and then it floated out of reach. Well, not actually out of reach, her arms were plenty long enough but there wasn't a force on the whole Isle that could unclasp her hands from the possessive ring she now had encircling the lovely witch's waist. Noceda was so at peace that she even zoned out for a bit.</p><p>She thought back over everything that had happened so far today. She could see the huge alleviation of Blight's symptoms with each step she took after getting out of that chair. Her personality was a brash as always but she was comfortable, even while challenging one of Noceda's friends to a fight. And spectating that sparring match, wow, had twisted around her insides like she never thought they could.</p><p>Although Noceda didn't look at Gus as anything other than a friend, it was <em>very</em> hard not to appreciate the strength and discipline he displayed while engaged with Blight in hand-to-hand combat. And seeing her actually get to enjoy the thrill of battle that had unfortunately become ingrained in her but without the danger and without much of the pressure her instability constantly weighed her down with... it was so <em>validating</em>. Blight was allowed to just be, and Noceda was allowed to enjoy her enjoyment.</p><p>Tomorrow she might just kiss Viney full on the mouth for 'bringing her back to baseline' or whatever it was the healer witch had said she'd done. After that match with minimal bloodshed and so little of her agitated jumpiness that followed such an activity,  Noceda had <em>thoroughly </em>enjoyed tucking the two of them away in a little nook and giving Blight an entirely different type of 'handling' than she'd received prior.</p><p>"You just going to cling to me the whole time or can I at least finish my dinner in peace?"</p><p>She sounded annoyed but Noceda could see through it so easily.</p><p>"Both." Was all Noceda deigned to respond with, and with a little huff Blight resumed engagement with her food, pointedly not looking at her or even the passer-bys who cared enough to glance at them.</p><p>Living and travelling with Blight for roughly half a year had brought her so very in tune with the witch. Plenty often it meant that they could push each other's buttons with frightening accuracy and speed, but it also meant that Noceda could just <em>feel</em> when the green-haired witch was at her most level-headed.</p><p>Now was one of those times. Viney had been right about it taking them probably weeks to get her back to a state where she was in full control, and also not hounded by the physical corruptions that constantly sought to slow her down. After a lot of magic use in a short period of time, which was becoming more and more often as the Isles grew increasingly dangerous each day, Noceda would try to focus on keeping her mind free of the rage and destructive urges that threatened to undo her. But her body would suffer where her mind tried to heal. Coupled with the constant need to fend off enemies, often with more magic when Noceda was useless enough to not be able to protect them both, it was a never-ending struggle to keep up with the healing glyphs. Heck, she was due for one now even.</p><p>There were times when she would keep up such a strict healing regime it would add to their daily number of squabbles and she would do her absolute damdest to keep them away from trouble all the while. And when she was as healed as the glyphs would allow, and what corrupt magic in her had to start from wherever her new zero was at that point (<em>oooh. Baseline. Got it, Viney)</em>,  just maybe they could spend a little while together and really enjoy it.</p><p>Noceda closed her eyes and just let herself feel.</p><p>Blight was tired, that much was certain. She was often tired, but snuggled up like this Noceda could appreciate the differences. Her body was relaxed, warm in Noceda's arms and lacking the occasional twitching in her claws or the jumpy tendencies her muscles always had at every little disturbance. She wasn't looking into those golden eyes she loved so much but Noceda knew if she were they would be looking back at her and seeing someone who cared about the witch <em>without</em> the flashing over-image of a deadly enemy.</p><p>Maybe for a little while they could just <em>enjoy</em> life, if they could somehow manage to not get wrapped up in anything too awful. It would be simple enough to keep using her glyphs, because the corruptions <em>always</em> came back, but like this Noceda could keep up easily, and better yet if she and Viney could figure out the more powerful healing glyph. Blight would be able to appreciate her day with a safer mind and not have to pay for that clarity by lying awake at night with thorns growing out of her bones and piercing her skin from inside because she was already saturated in healing magic and couldn't take any more.</p><p>
  <em>I will find that advanced healing glyph. I'm not taking one step out of this place until I do. Viney and me figured it out the first time, we can figure it out this time too, dammit.</em>
</p><p>She still had her chin perched on Blight's shoulder, although the witch had since finished her sandwich and was looking at her with an eyebrow raised. Noceda realized that she had been levelling a very intense look across the street at a perfectly innocent trashcan while her thoughts ran away with her.</p><p>"I can smell your brain burning. You alright?" Blight asked evenly. Noceda tightened her hold around the witch's waist.</p><p><em>I am very alright right now.</em> "Yeah. You alright?" She was looking up into Blight's eyes and the witch made a small confirming nose in the back of her throat. It was getting dark enough for the street lights to start popping on and most of the stalls were closed up for the night. Further down the street Noceda could hear the sounds of witches and demons coalescing to where the stalls of goodies only available to those who dared (or frankly, were nocturnal) were opening up for perusal.</p><p>"I'd be more alright if we weren't heading over to meet with the most mutated witch I've ever seen though." Blight murmured.</p><p><em>Not a chance</em>. "You don't have to come. Go to the safe house and just enjoy a night off." Noceda begrudgingly pulled away as Blight tried to shift out the stiffness in her shoulders and then stood up after a moment to stretch.</p><p>"I'm not going to let you waltz into that place alone with her. It doesn't matter if she was your friend, or used to be mine, she's different now. I don't trust her yet." Her eyes glinted in the lamplights and her posture was set to go, brooking no argument. She likely would have slung her arm to rest on top of her little bag but the duct tape Luz had wrapped the broken strap in was precarious at best. They would definitely need to get that fixed.</p><p>Noceda admired her visage against the tapestry of oranges and purples of the sky behind her. She didn't have much reason to try and persuade Blight to opt out of her trip over to Willow's other than to perhaps save herself from the over-protective bitching the witch was apparently geared up for.</p><p>Noceda heaved herself to her feet so they could start making their way towards the towering mutant tree sticking up out of the north residential area like the giant sore thumb that it was.</p><p>"Anyways," Blight huffed, "It's not fair if you get to stay out and I have to go back to babysit our unruly kids."</p><p>Noceda snorted at that. "If they're our kids in this scenario, wouldn't that make us their moms?" Blight flicked an unimpressed look at her.</p><p>"Yes, obviously. Way to spell it all out." She snarked. Noceda grinned from ear to ear and the green-haired witch looked almost like she didn't want to know the answer when she asked, "What?"</p><p>"So in this scenario you'd be a mommy with me? Would we share domestic bliss? Is there a scenario where I make you my baby-momma? How many scenarios do I get here?" With each word Noceda felt her grin get toothier and toothier and Blight's face went increasingly red.</p><p>Unfortunately Blight.exe has over-heated and must shut down (though not before shoving a cackling Noceda into some poor sucker's closed-up stall).</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>It was a much more solemn pair that arrived at Willow's doorstep an hour or so later. Noceda raised a hand to knock but the door slid open of its own volition, revealing a vine inside that had turned the handle and then twisted over itself as if imitating the hands of someone beckoning them inside.</p><p>It was almost totally dark outside save for the occasional street lamp and inside was eerily similar; a wall of blackness except for small glowing bulbs that lit up the floor around them.</p><p>They carefully made their way across the small house (though, really, it was basically an antechamber now), crossed the connecting plant tunnel and entered Willow's much taller house. It was pitch black save for a glowing little area at the base of the twisted root-stalk thing that Willow was a part of now.</p><p>A loveseat made entirely of woven grass sat across from a small table of refreshments and a second grassy chair, upon which sat an illusion of Willow. She looked just like Noceda remembered her; Messy hair, big round glasses and mischievous green eyes to match a mischievous wide grin. She even donned her old yellow trenchcoat that Noceda used to insist made her look like a child molester.</p><p>"I figured this might be somewhat more palatable for you both?" The illusion-Willow said, and interestingly enough the creepy some-what-tinny-sounding voice was originating from only the area where she 'sat'.</p><p>Noceda glanced at Blight who was decidedly sulking at this point and with a tormented sigh took the witch by the hand to sit in the one-hundred-percent organic loveseat.</p><p>"At least we won't snap our necks during the conversation." Noceda replied, settling on the small couch and trying to <em>will</em> some of the tenseness out of Blight's ram-rod posture.</p><p>She took in the little table, made of roots holding a round piece of glass and bearing a bowl of fruit with two bottled drinks next to it. She glanced over at the grassy chair 'Willow' sat in, and then at their own.</p><p>"So, is this... all you as well? Is everything here a part of you or something?" Noceda gestured vaguely at the furniture and the whole room really. Willow just shrugged in lieu of an answer. Blight seemed to curl in on herself and looked even more sour than she did before.</p><p>Noceda had always wanted to wipe that smugness out of her friend's face even when their world wasn't in shambles, but now she didn't even have an actual face to smack. The closest material thing to it was hovering about fifteen feet up in the air and trying to beat some humility into the illusion sitting across from them very likely wouldn't work.</p><p>
  <em>Ah well. What are friends for anyways.</em>
</p><p>"So... how ya been Willow?"</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Talking with Willow had always been an interesting game. The witch was a sprawling chasm of dark wit, of knowledge that by all rights she shouldn't have, and she had the ability to see right through a person and know what they were about regardless of how well they might try to hide it. In those respects, she hadn't changed at all.</p><p>In the constant battle that the citizens of Bonesborough had fought, many lost their lives or minds to the encroachment of an enemy they couldn't detect until it was too late. Willow, with all her incredible power and dangerously strong will, had managed to keep herself stable enough to tell friend from foe until the healers were able to make a comeback.</p><p>They spoke about many things over the last hour or so. Apparently the discovery of natural magic use triggering corruption was the first step to recovering what they had now. In order to not lose themselves, healers needed pure sources of magic to fuel their spells. Pure, uncorrupted magic lay in non-living items imbued with magical properties; Artifacts and relics. But how to access these sources?</p><p>Apparently Principal Bump had been one of the first to discover that using a thing's source of magic wouldn't speed along the corruption like natural-magic use would, and he was pivotal in getting the previously very illegal draining spell out for the public to learn.</p><p>The spell, and it's variations, was simple enough. One taps in to the magical energy that is held within an item and simply pulls it out to use instead of consuming one's own bile for a spell they wished to cast. It seemed almost like how a witch interacted with a staff, except for a crucial difference. Staves were meant to amplify a witch's power using their own complex forms of spellweaving, turning a small amount of magical output from the witch into a much bigger result. Directly pulling a source of magic out of its host object gave that user a huge amount of energy to weave however they liked with massive effects, but it would leave the object it was taken from as an empty husk. And that was only if user was successful; Woe be it to those who did it wrong.</p><p>When it became more commonly understood that one could attempt to drain their aunt's old singing alarm clock of its magic and cast a healing spell on that aunt (who perhaps was riding the edge of insanity or dealing with painful mutations by that point), without progressing one's own corruption by more than a tiny margin, there was then a very powerful demand for anything containing magic and wasn't alive.</p><p>Those who knew advanced healing and could master the draining of artifacts were able to band together and produce level-headed protectors and leaders while keeping each other sane and relatively healthy. Those who weren't so far gone as to have already become the enemy were able to rejoin their comrades, and there was finally a sense of 'Us'.</p><p>'Them', became anyone who couldn't be reasoned with, anyone too dangerous, anyone who didn't fit in the new Bonesborough. Willow would have likely fallen into that category eventually, but her fellow Hexside student and friend through Noceda wouldn't give up on her.</p><p>Viney had used an incredible amount of magic to bring her back. Willow would only restrain those who seemed to be aggressive and she left the peaceful be, and so Viney had used every artifact or relic she could gather over a period of weeks to ease Willow's mind back to clarity. In doing so, she had damned the witch's body but the city had another powerful protector around which to rally.</p><p>Willow and other powerful heroes built the wall which cut Bonesborough off from the rest of Turm Isle. Witches and demons driven insane with anguish and bloodlust didn't come from the boiling seas after all. With a way to keep 'Them' out and 'Us' in and safe, Bonesborough could rebuild. And so they did.</p><p>Now, Willow's body was far beyond recovery but in exchange for her flesh she became a network. She could fence out their enemies, block off the areas of Bonesborough that were too dangerous to recover, and see many problems in the city as they occurred. This made her indispensable but it also made her feared. The only reason she wasn't considered a threat due to her sheer reach and power was because of the trust her friends put in her.</p><p>It was here that Noceda had begun to wonder just how far Willow's unnatural body-mind network expanded. Were all the plants stretching out and around Bonesborough a part of her body and brain? Was she sitting on a couch made of Willow? What about the fruit in her hand?</p><p>"I might resort to arson if you tell me this is part of you too." Noceda gestured with the tangy blue fruit she'd taken a bite out of. Willow was a sadistic fuck at times, it was just in her nature, but making her friend eat a part of herself would be going too far. She decided to give the plant-witch the benefit of the doubt though. A lot of it.</p><p> Willow chuckled like she wasn't completely serious, then those sharp green eyes shifted slightly to the witch slumped next to her.</p><p>Blight had been losing the fight against her own exhaustion for the past half-hour at least and finally her eyes had stopped fluttering like agitated moths. Her breathing had evened out and she was slowly tilting to the left. Noceda moved closer to meet her before she simply fell over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.</p><p>"It took you two long enough." Willow tilted a chin their way and Noceda snorted. " Even before the whole Isle went to shit and you two pissed off I knew something was going to spring up eventually."</p><p>Noceda lifted an eyebrow at the statement. All she did was prevent Blight from falling over. "What makes you so sure I'm not just being friendly?"</p><p>Willow crossed her arms, which made the illusion flicker, and she chuckled with that god-awful smugness she always had.</p><p>"I just told you Noceda, I can see most of Bonesborough from here. And as much as the idiots in the HGA hate it, that includes their areas too. The training facilities. The little hidey holes people stuff themselves into where they think no one can hear them." She looked pointedly at Blight, settling into Noceda's warmth now that it had been provided. Noceda flushed with anger and embarrassment. <em>She's been spying on us?</em></p><p>"You're a creep, Willow." She growled. Noceda had suspected it the day all those years ago when they'd first met and Willow had asked if she could dissect her spleen. She'd known for sure when she woke up one day hanging upside-down with the plant-witch taking notes.</p><p>"Always have been. And yet we still remain friends." She replied just a little too happily.</p><p>"Are we?" Noceda asked abruptly. Willow's eyes narrowed just in the slightest, the same calculating look she would always have when faced with something unexpected. "Are we still friends, Willow?" Noceda furrowed her brows, not caring that her tone was rather defensive. There was a lot of the Willow she knew in this person, but she hadn't been here with Gus and Viney to see her transition from who she was then to what she is now.</p><p>Her question seemed to give the plant witch pause, and for the first time that night, she looked uncertain. Those intense green eyes bored into her own and Noceda could sense something like a quiet desperation.</p><p>"I'd like to hope so." The witch tented her fingers in front of her mouth, a defensive posture Noceda recognized. She had been caught off-guard. "I have so few friends. No family left, since Pa went insane and Dad killed both of them. Do you know what it's like to protect something with everything you have only to get so little trust in return that you question why you're doing it in the first place?"</p><p>Noceda frowned deeply, but before she could think too much on the ramifications of that question Willow answered it herself.</p><p>"I don't." She cocked her head at Noceda, the gesture alien but somehow... reassuring. "I don't care that they don't trust me."</p><p>Noceda didn't say anything and waited for the witch to continue, because she would definitely continue.</p><p>"I don't keep this place safe because I want the adoration of the people, I do it because that's all I have left." Willow lowered her hands and now she spoke with enough actual emotion playing on her face for Noceda to see the glint of her illusory fangs and a spark of something in her eye that might prove there was still an actual witch in there somewhere.</p><p>"I probably don't have the best perception anymore about what's 'right' and what isn't, but I remember what it was like to be happy. To be free. I can't have that anymore and I'm fine with that. I chose to protect Bonesborough. I know what I wanted when I was still me and so long as I hold on to that, then I am Willow. And If I'm going to continue to protect this place, and I will, I need to fix it."</p><p>She levelled Noceda with a cold passion that was beyond the reasoning of a single witch, and it was then that she understood just what her friend had become.</p><p>"No one deserves to end up like me, Noceda. I will un-break <em>all</em> of this shit and as your friend, I'm asking for help."</p><p>Noceda nodded. Slightly, at first; perhaps her head was just following the natural rhythm of her breathing. It built though, until she was shaking enough to rouse Blight from her slumber and the tired witch looked at her with foggy golden eyes.</p><p>"Noceda?" She asked softly, brows furrowing probably in response to the tears she could feel sliding down her face. "You okay?" She was trying to blink away her exhaustion.</p><p>"Yeah. I'm okay." Noceda smiled, and turned to look at Willow behind her reinstated tent of fingers, cautiously watching from behind those immaterial glasses.</p><p>She turned back to Blight and nudged her into a sitting position.</p><p>"Hey. Go to the safe house and rest, I'll be along soon. Me and Willow still have more to talk about."</p><p>The green-haired witch rubbed her eye sleepily while she stood up and Noceda watched her slowly totter across the room and out of sight. Noceda glanced at the illusory body of Willow who was still watching her, calculating most likely.</p><p>She jerked her chin in the direction Blight had gone. "Can you make sure she gets back alright?" Noceda asked, and she swore she could feel the wave of grateful relief from her friend as it rolled throughout every vine, stalk and flower in the room and beyond.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"What do you think we should do tomorrow?"</p><p>Amity found herself blanking at the question.</p><p>"We might end up staying here a little while." Luz wasn't looking at her while she spoke, she was peering up at a rack of jars containing what looked like coloured dust bunnies. "I think Noceda is pretty determined to figure out about that stronger healing glyph. If she's doing that and we definitely can't just take off with Owlbert to go find Eda, then we should do something helpful in the meantime, right?"</p><p>Amity looked up from her homework booklet. She'd flipped it open to give her something to zone out over while Luz inspected every room in the safe house. Noceda had told the excitable girl much earlier that she was expressly forbidden from touching anything that they didn't bring, but when they had gotten back to their temporary dwelling long before the other two, Luz had argued in favour of Noceda not saying anything about <em>exploring</em>.</p><p>Her travels around the house had thankfully gone by without mishap, even after Blight had come in a couple hours ago and flopped on the downstairs couch for a nap. If she was quiet enough to prowl the lower levels and not wake up the cranky older witch, she must have stayed more or less out of trouble.</p><p>Evidently having explored the rest of the house to her satisfaction, Luz was poking around the upstairs rooms again, scrutinizing the many items more closely and definitely having a hard time not picking everything up. She was lighting up little glyph balls as she went so they could see since it was hours after sunset and they couldn't reach any working lamps.</p><p>"We should try the library!" Luz declared. Now <em>that </em> was a solid suggestion, Amity thought. The brown-haired girl continued, "We might be able to find out all sorts of stuff there." Then she took on a decidedly sly look. "Maybe we'll find Blight's secret club house." And that was a <em>dangerous</em> suggestion, making Amity shudder.</p><p>"Even if she has one here, I don't think she'll be quite as, hmm, <em>forgiving,</em> as I was when I found you in mine." Amity regarded her friend with a dry look, and she imagined what Blight might look like if she caught Luz in her secret room reading her diary if she had one. <em>Yikes.</em></p><p>Deadly missions aside, it would be nice to visit the library if it was accessible. They could possibly find something useful about inter-dimensional portals and how to create or track them, or maybe a book that taught swordsmanship. There were so many options in a library after all!</p><p>Amity made a mental note to ask Noceda about checking in with this dimension's Hexside too, she still wanted to see if Principal Bump was around and able to help them. Almost as if summoned by thoughts alone, she heard the front door open downstairs and the older human call out tiredly that she was back. Luz trotted over to the top of the stairs to welcome her cheerfully, and Amity felt something twinge in her chest that made her think of their conversation earlier today.</p><p>
  <em>I wonder if this is the sort of thing Luz thinks about when she describes her idea of 'home'.</em>
</p><p>It was getting quite late, and soon enough Amity was finishing in the little bathroom they had access to on this top floor. The rooms up here were oddly elongated and the walls sloped to meet the ceiling. It was kind of cute. Luz had said the house 'had character'.</p><p>The room that connected to the bathroom had been too filled up with various magic-holding items but the one across the hall was plenty open, and it even had a small couch to sleep on. Luz had joked that it was too small to share (making her light up at the very thought) and she'd insisted that Amity use it. They'd settled on taking turns with the couch if they were going to be staying multiple nights, which Luz had been very vocally in favour of, although Amity convinced Luz to take it for the first night.</p><p>She wandered down the hall back to their room, passing a window that looked out at the rest of Bonesborough. It was strange to see the city at night like this.</p><p>Amity could see Bonesborough from her bedroom window at home, and she would stare out at the city and the many lights that never went out. Demons and witches who would be out late, or those who were nocturnal and conducted all their business only after the sun went down, that was normal. In this Bonesborough though, there was some light. A house or two here. A few more there. Most of it was coming from the Market and it still wasn't much.</p><p>It was nice. Those lights meant that people were out and living their lives the best way they could in their situation.</p><p>The door to their room was blocked open by yet more artifacts and as Amity went in she could see Luz on the other end of the oddly-shaped room. She was on her knees with her folded arms resting on the little windowsill nestled back there. A light ball glowed softly not far behind her, washing out the colour of her hair. She had her head on her arms and just seemed to be quietly observing the night. Amity felt a timid little smile pull at her lips. <em>I wonder what she's looking at.</em></p><p>
  <em>You could just go ask her.</em>
</p><p>Her stomach did a little flip-flop. Yeah, she could. Even after spending a week with the girl Amity still got nervous butterflies around her. Especially during these rare times when all was quiet and she felt warm inside and safe.</p><p>Motion on her left spooked her, but only for a heartbeat.</p><p>There was a large mirror against the wall that they passed each time they entered or left the room. Every time she went by it some part of her forgot it was there and she'd think someone was sneaking up on her. Luz hadn't noticed yet, or at least hadn't acknowledged that Amity was in the room and she went up to the mirror to observe herself.</p><p>Simple pajamas, slippers, no toothpaste on her face or anything. She was starting to blush a bit, wondering if this counted as preening. She just wanted to be tidy when she rejoined Luz for the night is all. She leaned in closer and rubbed a fingertip under her right eye, unsure in the dim lighting if she was seeing some residual make-up or if she was developing dark bags from her wild (lack of) sleep schedule. Her elbow lightly bumped the mirror but it wasn't cool and hard as expected of glass. It was warm?</p><p>She reached out, placing her fingers against the surface, and her reflection was doing the same. But it didn't feel like a mirror at all, it felt like she had her hand up against someone else's. It suddenly occurred to her to shift her fingers ever so slightly, and she grasped her hand's reflection and pulled herself out of the mirror.</p><p>She stared at herself. She stared back.</p><p>She was looking at herself through two different sets of eyes!</p><p>Amity looked down at her hands, both sets. Her skin looked normal. Her reflection's skin was.. almost normal. There was a little shimmer playing on the edges of any part of her she looked at, like that self had a subtle little outline to it that she couldn't quite see if she focused on any particular spot.</p><p>
  <em>"HUH?!"</em>
</p><p>She whipped her head, both of them, towards Luz who was staring at her from her place by the window. Her expression of sheer dumbstruck confusion was so funny that she couldn't help but giggle. Luz was pointing to her, and then to her, and then back to her. This was a bit odd but she couldn't help but giggle harder with each subsequent inch Luz's jaw travelled towards the floor.</p><p>"How are you doing that?!" The human launched herself across the room and nearly barreled into both of her. Luz was grabbing at her and looking her up and down, then at her other self, squeezing her arms and poking her to make sure she was in fact real. Or material, anyways.</p><p>"I think-"</p><p>Luz looked alarmed as both of her spoke in tandem, and Amity closed her mouth and concentrated for a moment. She then popped her lips a couple times, which drew Luz's attention, and Amity was pleased to see her reflection self's satisfied look since she hadn't copied the gesture.</p><p>"I'm pretty sure this is a doubling mirror." She said, smirking at Luz's wide-eyed look. The poor girl was looking at her two selves back and forth, the her that had spoken and the other her that remained silent.</p><p>"So wait, this you looks kind of funny, so is this one the real you?" Luz was pointing at her. She looked so completely floored by the magic and Amity wasn't sure exactly what to call the swelling feeling in her chest- chests-.. whatever, but she really liked it. Impressing the human with magic would never get old.</p><p>"It's both me. But yeah, this one is my actual body." She waved her hand enjoying how those wide eyes followed the motion, and then Luz's whole face took on the most serious, gravest expression she'd ever seen on the girl.</p><p>"L-Luz?" Amity asked nervously.</p><p>
  <em>"I must try it."</em>
</p><p>With frightening speed, the girl's eyes locked on the mirror just a few steps away behind them. Luz placed a hand on her reflection self's shoulder and looked her dead in the eye like she was about to go off to war or something.</p><p>"Wish me luck, Amity." Her tone was so severe. Amity bit her lip trying not to just break out into laughter but she managed to get her reflection self to return the serious look and nod solemnly.</p><p>Luz took a deep breath, lowered her hand from Amity's shoulder and she stepped around her, boldly placing herself in front of the mirror and then turning to face it. Instantly though, she paled, looking terribly afraid.</p><p>"Luz? Are you okay?" Amity reached out tentatively, not sure what could possibly be scaring her. Luz slowly drew up a hand to point at the mirror and she looked at Amity with wide eyes.</p><p>"A-Amity... I'm a vampire."</p><p>"Huh?"</p><p>She pushed her reflection self out of the way to get to Luz and she looked in the mirror, seeing half of herself peeking in from the edge and the wall lined with stuff that was behind the two of them.</p><p>"I don't have a reflection. I'm a vampire!" Amity furrowed her brows in confusion and Luz began frantically running her fingers along the skin of her own neck and throat. "But I don't have any bites! I don't even remember getting bitten!"</p><p>The human was speaking so rapidly it took Amity a moment to absorb what she'd said. Then she placed a calming hand on Luz's shoulder and her reflection self came over to stand in front of the mirror with her.</p><p>"It's not safe for you here. I'll try to suck your blood."</p><p>Luz was staring at her with such harrowing intent, like she'd realized her entire life was upended.</p><p>"You are so weird." Amity quirked her lips helplessly, and her reflection self shook her head as she stepped back into the big golden frame. She pulled the shell-shocked Luz in front of the mirror with her so she could see the two of them staring back.</p><p>"There's your reflection." She told the girl in a motherly tone, like one might use on a small child who thought the tapping at their window was a monster rather than a branch.</p><p>Luz was staring into the mirror at herself and she patted at her own face as if to confirm that she was in fact seeing what she was seeing. Her shoulders slumped in relief.</p><p>"Whew. Alright, that kinda freaked me out there for a second." Luz shook her head incredulously and chuckled, holding her hand over her chest like she was feeling for her own heartbeat. Then she reached out to touch the glassy surface.</p><p>"Okay so how does this work?"</p><p>Amity didn't even get a chance to explain because Luz almost immediately looked completely awed and she pulled herself out of the mirror in an instant.</p><p>"Woah!" They both chimed in perfect sync. "This is so weird!"</p><p>Amity backed up a step to take in the pair of Luzs and she looked the real one up and down (who was touching her own face and waving at herself), then the reflection one. Just like with hers, the reflection Luz had a subtle shimmer to the edges of her form that she could only see if she wasn't looking directly at it. Reflection Luz was pinching herself lightly.</p><p>"Wow, I can feel that!" Real Luz said, and she snapped her fingers a few times while the other one watched. Then Reflection Luz looked in one direction and Real Luz looked in another.</p><p>"This is so cool!" One of them said excitedly.</p><p>Amity's thought were crashing into her as a series of monumental realizations in sequence.</p><p>
  <em> Wow she got the hang of controlling her two selves really quickly.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Her earring matches the little polka-dot pattern on her shirt.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Does it still count as staring if I keep switching between which Luz's lips I'm looking at?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Why is she scary-grinning at me?</em>
</p><p>She snapped out of her daze to notice that both Luz and Reflection Luz were leering at her with huge impish grins and waggling their fingers in the universal declaration of intent to tickle.</p><p>"Torrrrmeeeent~" They said in unison, and Amity was sure her face could light up half of Bonesborough.</p><p>She bolted out the door and down the hall with twin peals of laughter right on her heels.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Gah, there were two more scenes I wanted to do but this chapter is long e-fucking-nough and I wanted to post days ago. Anywho, if you're enjoying the story I'd love to hear your thoughts! FEED ME VALIDATION.</p><p>Cheers all~</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Silent Night, Holy Night</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Little stuck so I'm just dropping off the rest of chapter 8 this week~</p><p>Warning: This chapter contains about 90% tooth-decaying sappiness.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>It was pretty late by the time she and Willow had bid each other a good night.</p><p>Noceda came into the house they had chosen earlier that day and shrugged her bag off into her hand, acknowledging a cheerful welcoming from Luz from her place at the top of the stairs when it came. Blight was fast asleep on the couch with her arm hanging over the side to rest on the floor. Evidently she had washed up sometime earlier and changed into shorts and a very baggy shirt that she rarely wore.</p><p>Deciding that was a great idea, Noceda showered up and threw something comfy on to enjoy the peace in. She picked her way across the fairly relic-crowded living room and roused Blight so they could make their way downstairs to the rec room which was more accommodating to overnight in. During the very brief pass-over they did of the house before getting lunch Noceda had decided it was probably safest for her and Blight to put a whole floor between them and their younger counterparts.</p><p>The bed was made up for guests and seemed clean enough, and there were fresh towels and soap in the bathrooms so Gus had been true about the houses taking in the occasional visitor. She'd find out where they could do laundry at some point, but it wasn't important right now.</p><p>Lying on a mattress was such a luxury; they even had a couple fluffy pillows. Despite the cooler temperature down here, the two of them were laid out on top of the sheets and blanket since it was a nice change from the island's ever-present humidity.</p><p>Blight lay partly on top of her face-down, holding one of Noceda's legs between her own and resting her head and right arm on her chest. The witch hadn't been fully woken up since being nudged off her couch and now she was dozing placidly with her hand curled under her chin. Her breathing was calm and warm and Noceda leisurely trailed her fingers along the witch's arm. Over her boney elbow. Up higher to her shoulder where she massaged the skin for a little while before moving on.</p><p>She took a deep breath, slowly, and let it out. Blight's green mane had a floral scent from the shampoo she'd used. The way her head rose and fell ever so slightly with each breath Noceda took was incredibly relaxing and she was beginning to drift off as well. She didn't really want to though. <em>I wish I could stretch this moment on for hours,</em> her tired brain whispered.</p><p>Like most things, fate had to ruin it for her of course. Distant hurried movement and muffled laughter from the top floor wafted down like an unpleasant odor and it was <em>just</em> enough to pull a piteous whine from Blight. The witch took a few deep breaths of her own, signalling her departure from the rest of her unconsciousness.</p><p>Noceda rolled her eyes upward to shoot a tired glare through the ceiling and hoped it tripped one of them up there. Whatever they were doing was rowdy enough for three people for goodness sake, how did they still have so much energy at the end of the day?</p><p>Blight murmured something unintelligible into Noceda's breast and she felt the witch's toes seeking warmer places to hide amongst their woven legs. She couldn't see Blight's face over her hair but she could hear her eyelashes brushing against the material of her shirt so she was definitely waking up.</p><p>The thumping got quite a bit louder as the two annoying teens apparently took whatever their game was down the stairs and they were running all over the main floor, clomping heavily right above their bedroom. There was an awful lot of giggling and the occasional girlish shriek. Then Luz was declaring something in an authoritative voice.</p><p>
  <em>"Halt! You have the right to remain cute! Anything you say can and will be used to prove how adorable you-AHH!”</em>
</p><p>Whatever was going on, it sounded like at least one person was on the floor now. Despite the nuisances upstairs, Noceda found herself smirking and depleting her value as a warm pillow with her chuckling. Blight laboriously tipped her face up to give her the driest of looks.</p><p>"What? That was a good line.” Apparently her winning smile wasn't very convincing though. The witch seemed to double in weight as she stiffened up and stretched, making no effort what-so-ever to save Noceda from the crushing motions. With a bit of half-coughing and half-chuckling she wiggled out from under the squirming witch while she worked the sleep in her system out.</p><p>Satisfied with her limberness, Blight collapsed back onto Noceda more fully and placed her head on her folded hands so they were face to face.</p><p>"Morning." Noceda teased sweetly.</p><p>"It feels pretty late. Willow better not have molested you with her tentacles or anything."</p><p>Noceda smirked and she reached up to curl her fingers into Blight's thick hair, just behind the brown roots that framed her face. She tugged in gentle chastisement though it didn't get any reaction beyond a slow blink. There weren't any light balls active down here, but Blight's eyes still managed to pick up and hold the traces of moonlight coming in from the room's single half-blocked basement window.</p><p> </p><p>"So what did you two talk about? I don't really remember anything past 'everything is shit all the time'."</p><p>Noceda loosened her grip in favour of gently scratching the witch's scalp. "That was a good deal of it." Eyelids drifted down to hide those golden orbs as Blight melted with the pleasant sensations, though she was unlikely to fall asleep again for a while. "I could tell it was pretty bad even with being cooped up at Eda's for months, but it got much worse. They lost a lot of Bonesborough in the time we were gone."</p><p>"Worse than Las Pelvis?"</p><p>"Maybe."</p><p>"Still better than what home was turning into I'll bet."</p><p>"Does it bother you that we're so close to your old place?"</p><p>Blight slowly turned to lay her cheek on her hands instead, giving Noceda's fingers a different place to scratch near the back of her head and towards her ear. Her shoulders pulled forward for a moment in a little shrug. Noceda took that and her lack of answer to mean she didn't want to talk about it, so she picked something else to catch her up on from the conversation she'd dozed through.</p><p>"Willow's been compiling a lot of stuff about the corruption. I won't get into it now, but she and Viney have got an idea of how it works. I'm gonna get her to break it down for me more tomorrow when I'm at the clinic. We still don't know why it's happening though."</p><p>Blight's pinkie was tracing little patterns in the dip between her clavicles. She felt her eyelids getting heavy and her arm kind of drooped out of its position on the witch's back until her elbow came to rest on the bed. She resumed rubbing whatever the sides of her fingers and knuckles were resting against now, which turned out to be the soft skin under her jaw.</p><p>"How's Willow? Besides the obvious."</p><p>"Unfortunately... she's still Willow." Noceda felt a sad sort of smirk play on her lips with the jest, then she continued after a moment. "There's enough of her in there that I trust her, and she's really dedicated to protecting the city, like scarily so. If it hadn't been for Viney and Gus though I don't think she would have made it." Blight tilted her face back up a little bit, just enough so that Noceda could see her eyes, although she wasn't looking at anything in particular and just listened patiently.</p><p>"She's really... she has this evil-overlord supercomputer vibe going on; hell she calls the spying-vines she put around the city her Willow's Information Network." Those delicate eyebrows furrowed a bit, a usual puzzled tick she got when Noceda used human terms she was unfamiliar with. Then they furrowed deeper and her pinkie paused its gentle stroking.</p><p>"She better not have any of those following us around."</p><p>Months of being as close to Blight as she had been, physically and emotionally, had required Noceda to not only tender a hell of a poker face, but also a poker heartbeat at times. This was one of those times.</p><p>"Regardless," she continued, "I genuinely believe Willow is still our friend and wants to protect Bonesborough. She asked for our help with stopping the pig demons and she looked pleased when I told her that me and Vines were gonna work on finding a stronger healing glyph." Blight's pinkie resumed stroking along her skin and Noceda was grazing the witch's throat with the tips of her fingers.</p><p>"Did she say anything about how they've been keeping everyone stable? Casting a powerful healing spell is still using a lot of magic."</p><p>"Yeah, Viney'll probably give me more specifics tomorrow but they've been able to do advanced healing this whole time by draining the magic out of artifacts and stuff." She lazily waved her other hand referring to the room in general, even if Blight couldn't see it. "Everything in these houses is a stockpile, a good chunk of it is for Willow's healing actually."</p><p>The witch shifted until her left elbow was planted on the bed with her chin held in her hand, she looked concerned and was searching for something in Noceda's expression. "They're draining magic out of artifacts?" She repeated, like the concept was alien and uncomfortable.</p><p>"When Viney used her spell on you, she didn't use the glyph I gave her to amplify her magic. She actually tore the power right out of it and directly powered the spell with the energy inside so she didn't need to use any of her own."</p><p>Blight was quiet for a little while. She was lightly drumming her fingers against Noceda's sternum in thought. She didn't seem to mind that Noceda was openly studying her face while she mulled over the information. Although after a few minutes of this, the pacing of her fingers changed. Her lips thinned. Breathing overly calm. All little agents to Noceda that gave the witch away as nerving up for something she felt was unpleasant.</p><p>"I want those glyphs back."</p><p>"No."</p><p>Her hand fell away from her chin and she glared. Noceda knew this argument was going to happen sooner or later. "They're mine. You went into my bag!"</p><p>"You were out of control." She replied evenly. Unwelcome images flooded Noceda's mind of pulling the witch away from the fight while she thrashed and snarled with manic glee on her face, making her abomination punch and stomp and crush. Of her crumbling to her knees the moment her concentration broke, even for a second. Of Luz needing to defend them while she dragged Blight's half-limp body away. It took everything in her to keep her eyes on her younger counterpart's back and not look at the raging boars all around them.</p><p>"I'm fine now. Viney fixed me all up, remember? My head is clear and I feel good. You did your part to help me and I want to be able to do mine." She reached up with her previously drumming fingers and swiped one across Noceda's lips.</p><p>Noceda tsked and started moving to sit up. "Don't be manipulative, Blight, you know it's not going to stay that way."</p><p>But the green-haired witch stiffened and didn't let her up. She shot Blight a warning look and expected to see a hard look in return, but instead she appeared.. hurt. They didn't break eye-contact for a moment and then Noceda deflated just a little bit and felt a thread of guilt twist around somewhere inside her. She may have been harsher than she meant to be. "I didn't mean it like that-"</p><p>"I put up with a lot of leashes you stick on me for the sake of helping me through all this... but you have to remember to trust me too." She spoke quietly, then sat up and looked away. Noceda chewed on her bottom lip and then sat up as well. She took in the sight of the witch in her oversized shirt that made her seem small. Blight wasn't the type to play the pity card; she was genuinely sad.</p><p>"Can we compromise then?" Noceda ventured. The witch tilted an ear towards her slightly to show that she was listening at least. "How about you take some and I'll keep the rest for now. They're worth a lot in trade here and we might need it."</p><p>She appeared to be considering the offer and then she cast a look over her shoulder to pin her with those sharp golden eyes. "I want half of them." God Noceda wanted to kiss those lips.</p><p>"How about three." She replied, raising a brow not in challenge, but with interest.</p><p>"A third of them." Those soft lips which hid away such sharp fangs thinned with residual stubbornness.</p><p>The corner of Noceda's mouth was trying to climb higher. "How about three glyphs and say... five points?"</p><p>"Ten points."</p><p>"Deal." She leaned forward and captured that alluring mouth and the witch returned the kiss. When they broke apart Noceda grinned at her. "We're getting better at this. But you're still bad at haggling."</p><p>Blight narrowed her eyes at the teasing and went still.</p><p>"Fine. But I'm using those points right now." She launched further down the bed and nabbed one of Noceda's feet, twisting herself so that she'd have maximum ability to keep Noceda pinned and her stomach dropped with the sudden thought of the torture that she was about to endure from that tongue and those fingers.</p><p>A heavy crash and the unmistakable sound of glass breaking from upstairs shocked them both to full alert. They exchanged tense looks and then scrambled off the bed, ascending to the ground floor and then up the stairs to the top floor. There was soft light coming from the open door to their right and Blight was in the room faster than Noceda but she just looked stiff and puzzled. </p><p>Noceda ducked her head into the room to see Luz right there looking quite like a deer in headlights, Amity with her hands covering her mouth and her eyes wide and... a second Luz looking guilty as all hell. The three of them were red-faced and breathing heavily.</p><p> Face-down on the floor, pretty close to the open doorway, was what appeared to be the expensive wooden backing of a huge mirror and large shards of the front were thrown all over the place. Blight crossed her arms and glanced over at Noceda with a long-suffering look. The younger teens were all staring at her too and appeared to be bracing for swift judgement.</p><p>Noceda let out a long, extra drawn-out sigh. She hoped it would come off as irritation rather than the relief she actually felt. Then she lifted a hand and circled a finger to regard the mess. "Clean all this shit up. I'll deal with you... three... in the morning."</p><p>She backed away from the room and Blight flashed an imperious look at the brats before she followed. When they were down the stairs and heading back towards the basement Noceda <em>better </em>not have heard a nervous little giggle because she'd go right back up there and give them all a thrashing.</p><p><em>We'll settle with Willow tomorrow. God I hope that mirror wasn't too powerful, </em>Noceda thought grumpily and mentally kissed all their tradeables goodbye.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Luz stifled a nervous giggle; She didn't want to accidentally incur the older teens' wrath and have them come back up here. She was <em>sure</em> they were going to receive cruel and unusual punishment but thankfully Noceda just ordered them to clean up and left. Maybe she's forget about it in the morning?</p><p>"Shhh! <em>Luz</em>." Amity was trying to smother her own set of giggles and was doing a better job of it, though she looked more frightened at the possibility of being caught laughing than Luz did.</p><p>They found a fair-sized box that only had a couple items inside so they found new places for those and brought it over to use as a garbage bin. It took all three of them to lift the big heavy frame and stand it back up. Then they started picking up all the broken pieces which just reflected the world normally now. Even if Reflection Luz touched a piece she didn't go through it.</p><p>"If we were an anime one of us would absolutely cut our finger on part of the glass." Luz joked. A quick glance at Amity showed her confused expression so she made her reflection self chime in cheerfully, "I got it." Then they pointed finger guns at each other.</p><p>"Stop that." Amity tapped Reflection Luz on the head and Luz giggled. The three of them continued picking up the glass and Amity found a broom and dust pan somewhere for when they collected all of the larger shards in the box.</p><p>"So, uh.. what happens with, ya know. Reflection me?" Luz asked, although Amity shrugged in reply with a thoughtful look on her face.</p><p>"Ed and Em had a Doubling Mirror when I was really little but they never let me play with it. My closest guess would be that your reflection will disappear when it runs out of magic." She was looking down at the floor in thought while grasping her broom. Luz picked up a couple more shards and then she had Reflection Luz reach out to pretend to choke her.</p><p>"Not if I kill the real me first and take my place!"</p><p>"Very funny." The witch said and rolled her eyes with a little smirk. Luz chuckled and focused on the mess before them, carefully placing her pieces into the box.</p><p>
  <em>I do feel bad about the mirror and I'll do what I can to make up for it. But I don't regret goofing around with Amity, she looked so happy! I like it so much when she just let's herself be herself. Seeing her smile feels like my heart is hugging me from the inside! I love it when she smiles. I love it when-</em>
</p><p>"Luz?"</p><p>"I love it when you laugh."</p><p>"Huh?"</p><p>"Sorry, what?" Luz jerked her head up to see Amity looking back at her with an expression that was part confusion and part something else. The witch blinked a few times and then spoke carefully.</p><p>"I was saying we wouldn't want that, right?"</p><p>Luz blushed, guilty at being caught with her mind wandering and tried to save the conversation. "No no, of course not! ... what don't we want again?"</p><p>
  <em>Smooth.</em>
</p><p>Amity was giving her a funny look, although she appeared like she was trying to fight off an odd little smile. "For me to put you both in time out." Luz blinked a few times and Amity continued, although that strange little smile was winning the battle against her restraint. "So you two don't go all stabby on each other."</p><p>"Oh! Right! Yeah we wouldn't want that at all." Luz chuckled and scratched behind her head awkwardly. Amity was blushing a bit now and the green-haired witch focused very dutifully on picking up more of the mirror shards. Her ears were twitching ever so slightly.</p><p>Luz grabbed a shard with the pretense of just going to throw it in the box but she covertly looked into it first to check her reflection. She was blushing too.</p><p>"You... like it when I laugh?"</p><p>She jerked back up to meet those eyes again. Amity looked shy, but she also looked... really happy. Really really happy!</p><p>Luz tried not to bite her lip and she knew she was just beaming. "I <em>love</em> it." Now she was the one avoiding eye contact. "That's not strange, is it?"</p><p>"It's not strange to me." Amity replied right away and Luz peeked at her. Something about her timidness seemed to fluster the witch and she reached out quickly to snag another piece for their box. Luz reached out too, feeling giddy and warm and both of them went to pick up the same piece by accident and brushed fingers.</p><p>They looked at each other and stared for a moment, then they both started giggling.</p><p>
  <em>I really really really love it when you laugh, Amity.</em>
</p><p>Luz was about to leave the shard for her and pick up the piece next to it but then something caught her eye.</p><p>"Wait a sec, Amity!" She nabbed the witch's fingers and held them there over the spread of shards. She did not miss the way Amity's breath hitched as she slowly guided their hands around in no particular pattern over the rest of the broken pieces. Many pieces were face-down and some were face-up; These pieces reflected Luz and Amity's hands back from dozens of places. Except for one.</p><p>A single broken mirror shard was showing Luz's hand holding... nothing.</p><p>
  <em>I knew I saw something odd!</em>
</p><p>She let go of Amity and picked up the mirror shard then carefully hopped her way around the mess so she could squish right up against the surprised witch. She held the shard out in front of them like she was taking a selfie.</p><p>Amity gasped, guided her hand closer and tilted the piece slightly back and forth, up and down. The witch was pressed right up against her but only Luz was being reflected!</p><p>They exchanged incredulous looks; a part of the mirror was still working!</p><p>Luz shot a triumphant grin over at her reflection self who had been staring at the two of them with big gooey happy eyes for the last several minutes.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>With all of the broken pieces of the mirror cleaned and swept up they were finally ready to turn in for the night.</p><p>Reflection Luz had no problem stepping into the little palm-sized mirror shard, and Reflection Amity could be pulled right back out. Seeing the reflections shrink or expand as they entered or left the piece looked somewhat like when Amity was moving things to or from her witch's bag. It looked a little silly, but at least the artifact hadn't been completely destroyed.</p><p>Now the room was silent except for the ticking of a clock and the occasional faint noise from somewhere outside. Mingling with the peaceful darkness was only a single light ball's soft glow near the door and a sliver of moonlight filtering in from behind the window's curtain.</p><p>Amity was curled up in her sleeping bag on the floor while Luz peeked down at her from her position on the couch. Judging by how Luz was staring in the general direction of her face, she likely couldn't tell that Amity was able to see her much more clearly than the girl could see her.</p><p>"You look cold."</p><p>"Don't worry, I'm not cold." Amity murmured quietly and smiled. Heck, she felt warmer with just the sentiment.</p><p>"... You sure you don't want the couch?"</p><p>Her concern was touching, but Amity really couldn't care less if she were sleeping on a log right now. "I'm fine Luz, thanks though." She felt perfect right where she was.</p><p>"... could I come down and join you?"</p><p>
  <em>Oh. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Ooooohhhhh!</em>
</p><p>For a moment Amity quietly panicked, but before she could wimp out she answered and tried to sound at least <em>sort of</em> not completely incredibly delighted.</p><p>"If you want to."</p><p>Luz immediately slipped out of her sleeping bag and put it on the floor with the open side overlapping with her bag's open side. Then she snatched her pillow and wiggled back in. She was <em>right there</em>, two little camping pillow-lengths away from Amity's face and she could see Luz gently nibbling her own lip.</p><p>She was almost as close as when they found themselves snuggled up that morning in the Owl House. Granted, there was a zipped up bag or two between them but still. It had been so nice to wake up and share a cute moment together.</p><p>Did she imagine it or did Luz shuffle a little closer?</p><p>She did! She pushed her pillow a few inches forward to center it back under her head.</p><p>Luz looked like she was revelling at her own daring and at this close Amity knew the girl could see her face well enough to make out her own shy smile and hopeful eyes.</p><p>"You sure you're not cold?" Luz's voice was so soft and vulnerable that Amity almost felt the need to cradle the words before they broke. She was reminded strongly of that night when Luz comforted her after the screaming witch scared them. Amity had wordlessly asked for her closeness with a frightened brush of her hand and Luz hadn't hesitated. The girl held her all night but she had been too upset to feel much beyond a weary gratefulness, and now Amity was being shown that same fragility with words instead of touch.</p><p>With a fluttery little giggle that she couldn't <em>quite</em> disguise as a sigh, Amity finally managed to say, "Fine, get in here. But no more tickling!"</p><p>With a happy little squeal Luz pushed her small pillow flush against Amity's and then wiggled right up to her. She could feel the warmth of her knees and the lightest brush of toes. Only a small part of Luz's sleeping bag even covered the girl anymore; they were mostly in Amity's now.</p><p>Tentatively, Luz reached an arm over to rest lightly on her waist. If Amity's stomach had been doing flips before, now it was spinning like a boulder going downhill.</p><p>"That's okay?" She asked in a tiny hopeful voice.</p><p>Amity nodded. It was okay, It was very completely <em>absolutely</em> okay.</p><p> </p><p>~</p><p> </p><p>And even if it took her much longer to drift off than it normally did, Amity was fine with that. She wanted to watch Luz's peacefully sleeping face forever.</p><p>And since Luz couldn't be still, even in sleep, she had pressed against Amity until she could squirm in no further and only then did she truly become calm.</p><p>And when Amity had <em>finally</em> been able to stop internally squeeing and flailing and settle into a blissful floating place somewhere between almost wakefulness and deep sleep, one last thought drifted in her mind before any further whispers would flow too deeply to remember;</p><p>
  <em>Is this what home feels like?</em>
</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. All is Calm</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Bonesborough chapters are hard T-T (thanks for the lovely comments last chappie! &lt;3 )</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>She knew she was staring and maybe it was a little weird, but <em>how could she not?</em></p><p>Amity was pretty sure by this point that if her expression tried to change <em>even slightly</em> from the disbelieving little smile she'd been wearing for the last ten minutes.. her face would just break. The last week of waking up with Luz in close proximity had been a blessing, but none of the previous mornings compared to <em>this.</em></p><p>Luz's sleeping bag was abandoned entirely. Amity could feel each relaxed breath the human took both with her arm wrapped around her and the light exhales on her chin. She could feel Luz's arm slung over her middle, a wonderful little weight she never knew she'd needed until now. She didn't even care that a bony ankle was insistently pinning her foot. Not when keeping still meant she could savour every little detail and micro-expression of the beautiful face in front of her.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Titan be willing... I want...</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>What did she want?</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Luz is just so...</em>
</p><p> </p><p>She's what?</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>She's Warm. Soft. Strong.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>Once she started, she didn't think she could stop.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Kind. Fearless. Silly. </em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>Was there even a reason to stop? There were so many things.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Determined. Accepting. Pure-hearted.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Things that made this girl everything Amity could ever want.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Vulnerable. Fragile. Reckless.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>And the spell was broken.</p><p> </p><p>The fuzzy edges to her thoughts and vision seemed to bleed away into dreadful clarity and Amity grasped desperately for the comfort it had brought. Luz was here, nestled up safely against her... but for how long?</p><p>She didn't want to think about it. Didn't want to acknowledge it.</p><p>Just how easily this treasure could be harmed, how easily she could be lost. How effortlessly some force could reach in to her world and snatch this happiness away after she had finally found it.</p><p>This place was dangerous. This world was dangerous. On more than one occasion she and Luz could have been really hurt. Maybe even killed. If they stayed here long enough, Amity knew for certain something bad would happen. It was only a matter of time.</p><p>Heck, given enough time <em>she</em> might become a danger.</p><p>Amity carefully extracted herself from Luz and squirmed out of the sleeping bag, somehow miraculously without waking her up. She re-covered the human and slowly stepped away, watching her sleeping form longingly. She held on to her elbows in a little self-hug and tried to push back down the fears that swam across her thoughts more and more often now.</p><p>She drew in a deep breath and started making for the hallway. She needed to clear her head. There would be something in the kitchen for her to nibble on and she could maybe get something out of the solitude while she was the only one up.</p><p>The stairs creaked as Amity descended them, and the more she tried to be quiet the louder they seemed to get. When she finally reached the ground floor it appeared to be safe enough to walk normally, though as she was passing the living room to head for the kitchen she froze upon realizing she wasn't the only one awake after all.</p><p>Blight was curled up on the far end of the couch with her legs folded under her and she was staring out the window, or perhaps she was watching the morning rays play against the frame of it.</p><p>Amity didn't know what to feel around her older counterpart. She was confused enough about things without the additional complexities and challenges the other witch presented. Maybe Blight was so lost in her thoughts right now that she wouldn't notice Amity sneak past her to find snacks and refuge in the kitchen...</p><p>" 'Morning."</p><p>Amity flinched slightly and replied just a little too quickly with a, "Good Morning" of her own. She hovered indecisively, not sure if she could politely continue to the kitchen or if- oh Blight was looking at her now.</p><p>The older witch shifted so she was comfortably sitting forward on her end of the couch and she gestured to the other end. "Hey. Relax a bit. Let's have a chat, witch-to-witch."</p><p>Amity swallowed with some trouble and found herself hesitantly stepping closer to the offered seat. It was ridiculous, why was she so nervous? Blight was in her right mind, they were safe, Luz and Noceda were elsewhere and sleeping, everything was fine.</p><p>She sat stiffly on the couch, not quite sure what to do with her hands so she just kept them in her lap. Blight was holding a cushion against her stomach and hip with her other elbow perched on top of it. She used three of those claw-tipped fingers to support her chin while she studied Amity. Neither of them spoke for a while.</p><p>"Do I frighten you that much?"</p><p>Her eyes jerked towards the older witch for a second but she looked away. "No. It's just.. not usually just the two of us."</p><p>"Hmm. Yeah I guess that's true." Her focus seemed to drift off vaguely downwards through the floor, possibly where Noceda was still sleeping. Amity felt like she could breathe a bit easier now that those intense eyes were directed elsewhere. She was always so... <em>much</em>.</p><p>Amity cleared her throat just a little. "What did you want to talk about?" Those eyes were back on her. Though the effect was somewhat dimmed by the casual shrug of her shoulders.</p><p>"Doesn't really matter." Blight said, looking mildly disinterested. Then she quirked a brow with a wisp of inspiration. "How'd you sleep?" The makings of a little grin were appearing on her face just then. "Two Luzs, huh? Lucky you."</p><p>Amity felt her cheeks flare. "We found a piece of the mirror that still works so she could go back!" She said a bit too loudly, and flinched immediately, hoping she didn't wake anyone up. "It was just the two of us up there." <em>What's that supposed to defend exactly?</em>  "I mean.. pfft. I slept fine, thank you very much."</p><p>Blight seemed to be amused with her flustered response and they were quiet again. After a moment Amity worked up enough courage to ask something that she had been wondering about for a while now.</p><p>"I want to ask you a question." She took a breath to steel herself and Blight merely raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to speak. "Do you.. love.. Noceda?"</p><p>Amity savoured a little twinge of satisfaction since the older witch had clearly not anticipated <em>that</em> of all questions.</p><p>"Wow, you're <em>terrible</em> at idle chit-chat." Blight levelled an even stare at Amity and she did her best to look unaffected by it. Her resolution seemed to pass some test as the older witch quietly sucked her teeth and looked away before she spoke again. "I don't really know how to answer that. Why do you ask?"</p><p>Amity suppressed an embarrassed flush. "I.. I want to know why you travel with her. I know it's not just because she heals you. Even though you have safety here you'd go with her if she left Bonesborough, wouldn't you?" Somehow asking these questions felt like asking something personal and divulging something personal at the same time. "You...really, really care about her, don't you?"</p><p>Blight took her time repositioning herself so that her legs were resting against the huge decorated vase blocking where one would normally put their feet when sitting. She folded her arms behind her head and leaned into the couch, closing her eyes, looking for all the world like she was ready to take a nap.</p><p>"Yes, I care about her." She finally said. "We used to have a sort of, hmm.. 'friendly rivalry' I guess you could call it, back when we were about your age. She gave a shit about me when there really wasn't a lot of that going around." Blight was staring out at nothing in particular now.</p><p>"But... you left home alone. Was she already gone, and that's why you didn't leave with her?" <em>At what point did friendship become something more for you, something strong enough with which to risk your safety for?</em></p><p>Blight's expression was unreadable. "I don't know if she was already gone when I left that place. I was angry, and sc-", She cut herself off like she'd bit her tongue, then continued, "Not in my right mind anyways."</p><p>"Do you regret it? Not looking for her before you left?"</p><p>Each question felt like it was after just a tiny piece of what Amity wanted to know, but she had no idea what answer she was looking for. Did Blight only run away because she didn't like where she was, and any other future would do?</p><p>It was a few moments until the older witch spoke again.</p><p>"I was a mess when I left home, Amity. But when Noceda found me in Las Pelvis I was so much worse. I could have killed her. There were so many times I almost did while she helped me get my mind back." She was looking at Amity now with a breakable sort of caution in her eyes. "She just cares so damn much." Amity nodded softly. She related entirely. "Then she goes and says she wants to find out why the corruption is happening and how to stop it. Wants to come back to Bonesborough and go through the owl lady's stuff, maybe find her. She asked me to come with her."</p><p>"Why did you go with her that time?"<em> Why then, what changed, how could you be sure you wouldn't lose her?</em></p><p>The older witch was giving her a searching look, and for once it didn't seem so piercing. "I don't think I knew what else to do with myself. Trying to take on this mess of a life we've got alone blew up in my face and, I don't know, maybe I wanted to pay her back for helping me."</p><p>"That's it?"</p><p>"Why is this so important to you?"</p><p>"It's just-..." She searched for the words, why was talking about this so hard? "Did you care about her when you two left Las Pelvis?"</p><p>She let out a mildly irritated breath. "Yes, I cared then too. I figured she'd need all the help she could get if she wanted to make it back here in one piece." Then her eyes softened out into something much more somber. "Didn't totally succeed, honestly. We'd both be pretty fucked if it wasn't for her curse. She wants to save everybody so badly she'll literally kill herself trying."</p><p>Blight cared for Noceda and accompanied her on her mission even though the risks were huge and she wasn't even sure they would make a difference. "And you were okay with her putting herself in danger for everyone else's sake?" It came out more sharply than Amity had meant.</p><p>"Of course I wasn't okay with it. But you don't get it, <em>nowhere </em>is safe. Even before our magic screwed everything up I didn't know what I was looking for, or what I wanted to do with my life. Being around Noceda back then was.. nice. And when she asked me to go with her to come back here it felt like the only thing that made sense. I <em>had</em> to go with her. If something happened to her and I could have stopped it and wasn't there, I-" She stopped and looked away. Amity felt guilty for pestering her with so many difficult things, especially now that Blight seemed so much more... vulnerable, somehow. She'd hoped that the older witch would have some kind of resolve for her to base her own confused feelings on.</p><p>"Do you believe Noceda can find out how to fix what happened here?" She asked, hoping it wasn't the wrong thing to ask.</p><p>Blight was quiet again for a while. She kept opening her mouth to start speaking but shut it again like she was about to admit something she didn't want to. She eyed Amity carefully before she finally murmured a soft, "I'm not sure."</p><p>Somehow that just frustrated Amity and she didn't mean to let it get the better of her but she couldn't help it. "So if she keeps trying and keeps putting herself in danger, and you, that's okay?"</p><p>Blight looked upset at her words and tone but she stayed calm and pinned her with a renewed intensely golden gaze. "What are you really trying to ask Amity?"</p><p>The older witch's stiffer posture and the imploring authority of her voice reminded Amity just how alike, and not, they both really were. She suddenly felt deflated and small.</p><p>"It's just... I'm worried that Luz is going to get hurt. Noceda is strong and she has you but I don't know if I can help Luz or keep her safe." She blinked rapidly to keep her eyes clear. Although she wasn't looking at Blight, she could feel the other witch relaxing, which in turn was reassuring even if she didn't feel like she had any more answers than when they'd started talking. When Blight spoke again, her voice was even, almost confident although not quite there, like she had figured something out but didn't know how to share it.</p><p>"All you can do is give it your best try." She said finally. "If you care about Luz then stick with her.. and try to mitigate some of her human-ness when she's being dumb."</p><p>She didn't want to ask the final question that she had such a hard time thinking about. Hearing the wrong answer from her older self might just twist something inside too far for her own hopes to keep up with. She asked anyways.</p><p>"Do you think Luz and I can get back to our own world?"</p><p>Blight looked directly at her and held eye-contact. It wasn't uncomfortable for once, she almost felt like she was looking into the eyes of her older sister or brother during the rare occasion they weren't being so.. <em>themselves.</em> Like Blight was seeing her and remembering that she was a scared young witch rather than some kind of vaguely-defined threat.</p><p>Her voice was soft, as were her eyes while she answered. "I honestly hope you can. Hell, if we do find out how to portal you guys back I might just push Noceda through and tell her it was an accident." She let out a half-hearted chuckle. Like this, Blight seemed so.. warm. It was nice.</p><p>Both of them could make out the sound of footsteps plodding around below and eventually come up the stairs long before Noceda actually appeared while scratching her belly under an obtrusively bright and baggy sleep shirt. She and Blight exchanged looks, wordlessly agreeing to end the conversation there. Amity tried to school her features into appearing like she <em>hadn't</em> just had a somewhat confusing and emotional verbal ride with the other witch.</p><p>Noceda narrowed her eyes suspiciously at them. "Were you two talking shit about me? You've both got, 'I was talking shit about Noceda' looks on and I'm pretty familiar with the 'thinking' version of that look."</p><p>Blight smirked, her voice fully recovered of all the attitude she typically displayed. "Wouldn't you like to know. Sorry, this conversation is reserved for witches only. Human witches will have to settle for generic public snark."</p><p>Something about the way she easily slipped back into a bantering mood made Amity feel uplifted, which was a nicer feeling than being worried so she let the tension melt away from her for now. She poorly suppressed a giggle when Noceda blew a raspberry at Blight and shuffled off into the kitchen for something to eat.</p><p>"Where's Luz? She still sleeping?" Noceda called loudly from the kitchen. "Oh, and is there still two of her up there?"</p><p>Amity looked between the direction Noceda had gone and where Blight sat and pointed in the human's direction before asking quietly, "Should we.. go join her?" Although instead of answering her Blight called back, "Quit yelling across the house. Amity says you're being rude."</p><p>While she busied herself with blustering at the infuriating older witch, Noceda noisily dragged a chair down the hall from the kitchen and plopped into it when she had joined them again. She donned a mildly sour expression and took a pointed bite of her fresh bread-thing she'd chosen for breakfast.</p><p>"<em>Anyways</em>," Amity growled at the still-smirking Blight and then directed her attention to Noceda, "No there aren't any doubles of us now. Luz found a piece of the mirror that still works and the reflection can still come and go from it."</p><p>"Mm. Well at least that's one thing I don't have to worry about. Willow's probably going to want payment though and the only thing of value we can spare are those power glyphs."</p><p>"Well, Luz did find them. If Willow wants more from us after those then Luz and I can do jobs for her or something." She said matter-of-factly. Noceda pursed her lips like she hadn't really considered that, and nodded her approval at the declaration. Then she perked up like she remembered something.</p><p>"Actually, speaking of jobs, Willow did ask us to be part of a, well, I guess you could say a 'mission'. Hold on a sec, Luz should be here for this." Noceda heaved herself off of her chair and left the rest of her bagel-thing on the seat. Amity thought she was going to go upstairs to get Luz until she started kicking the wall at the base of the staircase and was animatedly shouting in that other language they shared. The sudden rise in volume was a bit of a jolt and she could see that Blight didn't really appreciate the fuss either.</p><p>Luz's groggy voice called back down, still in that other language, and whatever she said must have appeased Noceda because she returned to her chair and finished off her food in a few hearty bites.</p><p>"Anyways, to be continued when she gets down here. So, Amity, what're your plans for today?"</p><p>The question sort of took her by surprise. "Um.. well Luz and I were thinking of checking out the library if there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that. Also I think we should stop by Hexside. It was where the portals from our world originated and maybe the Principal Bump of this dimension can give us some clues on how to get back." She outlined reasonably. Noceda was nodding along with her up until she mentioned Bump. Then she looked pretty somber. Amity felt her heart sinking while she waited for Noceda to confirm her suspicions.</p><p>"Principal Bump is gone." She murmured. Blight looked away although she didn't seem surprised by the news. Perhaps Noceda had already spoken to her about it. "The old coot was so powerful and important in getting Bonesborough back on its feet but.. one of his corruptions made his bile sac leak into his heart. They couldn't fix it in time."</p><p>Amity laced her fingers together and watched them for a little while. She was sad for this world's Bump and sorry he was gone, and it also meant that there was one less person she trusted to maybe have some answers for her. She took a breath and looked up at Noceda and Blight in turn.</p><p>"I still want to go. Luz and I can say something in his honour." She nodded, to herself mostly. Even just the thought that he might have been here and able to help them had provided her some emotional support with getting to Bonesborough. And Noceda said his help had made Bonesborough a place they could be safe in, too. She wanted to thank him for that at least.</p><p>Noceda donned a warm sort of smirk at her words and Blight was watching her with a glint of approval in her eyes. "You know what, that's pretty awesome of you. I'll go do that myself sometime soon. Blight?" The human nodded towards the older witch questioningly and from her little smile and nod in return Amity figured she fully intended to go as well.</p><p>Energetic footsteps from upstairs and quickly sounding like they were descending signalled Luz finally getting her morning-person boost. She was halfway down the stairs when she called out a loud and jubilant, "Good morning everyone!"</p><p>The three of them returned the sentiment with varying degrees of enthusiasm and Amity was not surprised, but quite pleased, when Luz took quick stock of their sitting arrangements and immediately decided to sit next to her on the couch. On the other end, Blight sent her a little smirk which she did not acknowledge.</p><p>"So what's this about an important family meeting topic? Also wow sorry for being late, I think that was the best sleep I've had in a long time!"</p><p>
  <em>Family meeting? </em>
</p><p>Amity made a mental note to later analyze the feeling that sparked in her chest from that because Noceda launched right in to the 'mission' she mentioned earlier.</p><p>"So Willow says that they've found out where the pig demons are coming from. She's asked us for help when Gus' people are ready to go investigate and stop whatever is creating them." She spoke evenly enough although Amity felt like she was being perhaps overly calm and detached from what the mission actually entailed.</p><p>"Woah!" Luz clapped her hands together once. "Epic battle for the safety of Bonesborough! I'm in!" Amity furrowed her brows and looked away before Luz could notice. Didn't she remember how dangerous those monsters were?</p><p>Thankfully Noceda seemed eager to reign her in as well. "I'm not pushing for it or anything, we should just put some thought into it. They're a real problem for everyone here and we might be able to help with that. But we know that-"</p><p>Blight interrupted her with crossed arms and an eyebrow raised challengingly. "Excuse me oh heroic one, how are you expecting to fight those disgusting things when you freeze up at just the sight of them?"</p><p><em>Good question. </em>Amity watched Noceda carefully while the human shot Blight a dirty look at her frankness. Luz appeared ready to jump in any second with an uplifting or distracting comment, but Amity wanted to know how exactly Noceda expected to be able to fight something that makes her react so strongly.</p><p>"<em>For your information</em>, I'm going to try and work on that. I only found out about those pigs like," she scoffed a bit and looked away for a second, "a few days ago. And if the mission is successful then I don't have to worry about them ever again."</p><p><em>Sometimes I forget that she's still related to Luz, </em>Amity told herself flatly but responded out loud with, "I'm not sure that's how trauma works Noce-"</p><p>"<em>Anyways,</em>" She cut Amity off. <em>Rude</em>. "Like I said, I'm not pushing you guys into it. Just bat it around a bit. We don't necessarily have to be on the front lines or anything, there could be other ways we can help. For now we've got other stuff to focus on, so do what feels right." With that she got up and pulled a pair of sunglasses from <em>somewhere</em>  and slipped them on, looking down coolly at all three of them on the couch. "In my case, I've got a powerful healing glyph to discover." The mighty image she struck would have been more impressive if she wasn't wearing a brightly-coloured pajama shirt.</p><p>She spun around her chair and headed down the stairs presumably to get ready for whatever she was going to be facing at Viney's clinic. Amity leaned back so she could shoot a look at Blight, who didn't acknowledge her but did look like she was equally unenthusiastic about the older human's intrepid sense of duty.</p><p>"Hey Amity, have you had breakfast yet?" Luz chirped beside her.</p><p>She sighed, already feeling like her head was too full and she'd only been awake for like, a hour.</p><p>"I'll have something in a bit, Luz. I'm gonna go get cleaned up." A nice hot shower would hopefully relax her enough to handle yet another crazy day in this wacky dimension.</p><p>Luz watched her trudge up the stairs with a thoughtful look on her face. Then she turned towards Blight who still lounged on the other end of the couch they shared.</p><p>"Did I miss something? She looks more... 'Amity-ish' than usual."</p><p>The older witch gave her a wry sort of look at the question but responded anyways. "Gotta get up early to keep up with us. She'll fill you in on anything you need to know."</p><p><em>Hmm. Not overly helpful</em>. Her stomach suddenly demanded attention and she jumped up eagerly. "Hey I'm gonna make something to eat, want me to make some for you too?" The green-haired witch waved her off leisurely. "I ate earlier, but thanks."</p><p>She was about to make her way to the kitchen when Blight called her name, prompting her to turn back and take in her lounging form. She thought she saw a slightly mischievous glint in her eye but it went away as she started speaking.</p><p>"If you think Amity looks too stressed you could give her a witch's cheer-up charm when she comes back down."</p><p>"A what now?"</p><p>"A witch's cheer-up charm. Just tell her, 'I hope you feel good today' and do this," she gestured with her index finger, "but to her. I'm surprised no one has shown you that, it fits perfectly with your personality."</p><p>Luz copied the motion and could immediately see why it must work. Blight was helpful after all!</p><p>"Hey thanks! I'll give that a try!" She skipped over to the kitchen and hummed as she perused the items they had at their disposal. There was a little wicker basket holding roundish things that seemed to be made of some sort of bread-type material. A tentative nibble on one was instant proof of their palatability, and she searched around the kitchen for any other edibles and tried not to knock over the stray artifacts that littered most of the surfaces like they did the rest of the house.</p><p>In short order Luz had made up two plates featuring the bread-things cut in half and covered in a fruity jam. She'd found a couple boxes of crazy-looking cereal and she shook some out to layer over the jam. Perfect!</p><p>There wasn't a fridge in here but there was a stash of bottled beverages and Luz poured one of them out into two glasses, then she made a <em>tiny </em>pair of ice glyphs to produce two cute little glistening chunks for their drinks. She checked in quickly with Blight to make sure she didn't want Luz to bring her anything and snatched the chair Noceda had used earlier. Hearing Amity about to descend the stairs, she quickly appraised her work.</p><p>Kitchen table; set for two, breakfast and juice. Amity had made her breakfast the morning before they had arrived in Bonesborough and Luz was returning the favour for their first morning <em>after</em> arriving in Bonesborough!</p><p>Amity reached the bottom of the stairs and Luz bounced on her heels before scrambling to the doorway and calling the witch over.</p><p>"Amity look, I made us breakfast!" She announced proudly, presenting the little display with a wave of her arm. Amity took in the table and food and she smiled warmly, which was exactly what Luz had been going for, yeah!</p><p>"I want you to feel good today!" Luz said giddily and reached out to trace a finger along the outside edge of Amity's left ear.</p><p><em>Immediately</em> her face went beet red and a visible shiver surged through her entire body. That wasn't quite what Luz had been expecting and she noticed Blight peeking around the corner of the other end of the hallway, poorly stifling a snicker.</p><p>"Blight.. uh.. taught me the witch's cheer-up charm?" She said by means of explanation and Blight was barely containing her laughter now. Amity's wide eyes narrowed suddenly and she whirled around to point an accusing finger at the other witch with a loudly snarled, "<em>YOU!"</em></p><p> </p><p>Luz wondered if she would ever fully understand witches.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Despite how early it was, by the time Noceda and Blight arrived at Viney's clinic there was already a group of people milling around outside with little numbered slips of paper grasped in whatever type of appendage they had. Others had uniforms on and appeared to be clinic staff monitoring the small crowd.</p><p>"Wow, party never stops here, does it?" Noceda murmured a bit uneasily, taking in the various witches and demons waiting for their turn to be assessed or healed. Some of them were in obvious pain or having difficulty keeping themselves or others under control. Blight was holding her elbows, a nervous tick Noceda hadn't seen from her in a while.</p><p>There were several small winged critters perched on the clinic's large sign and one of them that resembled a raven with an eyeball for a head flew down and hovered in front of Noceda. It spoke in a tinny-sounding voice with no inflection.</p><p>"Message for: Luznoceda Liketheoneiknownotthelittleone. Message for: Luznoceda Liketheoneiknownotthelittleone. Sent from: Captain Gus Porter Wait That's Not Nevermind. Sent from: Captain Gus Porter Wait That's Not Nevermind."</p><p>Blight snorted and seemed to relax a bit which in and of itself made the strange little critter welcome in Noceda's books. She held out an arm and let the little messenger demon land while it relayed its recording. There were a pair of little whistles hanging from cords looped around one of the creature's feet.</p><p>"Sure, go ahead little buddy." She said to it, and a slightly tinny-sounding version of Gus' voice emanated out of the holes that were spread across the demon's feathery chest.</p><p>
  <em>"Uh, okay yeah. Hey Noceda! I was hoping we could meet and catch up today. This little guy will be your gang's relay for whatever you need and I was gonna call you when you got to Viney's but I just got some red flares from one of our teams in the field and I don't know- yeah, anyways, long story short let's meet up later! Just send this guy back when you're free and I- ... okay shoot.. Gotta go, bye!"</em>
</p><p>"Message end. <em>AHHWWK</em>."</p><p>The sudden screech at the end was a bit jarring and Noceda had to scramble to catch the whistles as the demon shook them off of its foot.</p><p>"Hey, give me one of those. I'm probably not going to be much help here so I'll go see if there's anything I can help him with." Blight said and picked one of the whistles from Noceda's fingers. "Something's gotta feel my wrath for yesterday, might as well be some marauding monsters." She said with a devious little smirk.</p><p>Honestly, Noceda wasn't sure how well the chaotic clinical atmosphere would have meshed with the witch for an extended period of time anyways and she hadn't voiced any other plans for the day. Going out and purposely seeking a fight wasn't a hell of a lot better for Noceda's peace of mind but if she was with Gus and his soldiers then that made her less nervous about it.</p><p>"If that's what you want, just go easy with the magic use, alright?" She said and tried to keep the wariness out of her voice. Blight picked the messenger demon off of her arm and poked it in the eye, then said, "Guide to sender", to it. The bird critter wriggled out of her hand and started to fly around them, apparently waiting for Blight to follow.</p><p>"I'll be fine. This might be a good chance to see what sort of stuff they can do in a real fight without magic. It can be a monster-killing <em>learning experience.</em>" She said facetiously, perching a hand on her hip and grinning. Noceda quirked a half-smile at her enthusiasm. They both flinched as one of the witches waiting for their turn in the clinic started yelling to them self and one of the orderlies sprinted over and tried calming them down.</p><p>Noceda turned back towards Blight with a little mental shake to help prepare herself for what she was going to see today. "Anyways, You," She took her snazzy new pair of sunglasses out of her pocket and flicked them open with one hand, slid them on with a raised brow and finished in a cool voice, "Be good today. I should be done around 6ish."</p><p>She leaned forward and gave the green-haired witch a crisp peck on the lips. With a little two-finger salute she turned heel and marched off through the clinic doors with as much confidence as she could muster.</p><p>(She didn't see Blight trying very hard not to look star-struck).</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Under different circumstances Amity wouldn't entirely have believed that she was awake right now.</p><p>She and Luz sat on a blanket spread over the grass, the remains of their lunch and snacks gathered in a wicker basket Luz had produced from somewhere. The temperature was perfect and the ash in the sky took the harsh edge off of what would have been a blindingly beautiful afternoon sun. Though their lunch <em>had</em> followed the rather solemn affair of honouring the death of this world's Principal Bump, Luz managed to brighten the mood like she always did.</p><p>        Hexside looked generally the same, other than being abandoned and left to weather the last better part of a year by itself. Leaves and other debris were scattered over the paved areas leading up to and around the school. The nine gleaming golden poles that displayed tapestries of the main nine covens stood proudly enough but the tapestries themselves looked tattered and one had fallen down entirely. A few tipped-over trashcans and lonely eyecycles dotted the grounds and the lawn had grown wild and scraggily.</p><p>Luz waved up at the large eye that peered out from the front tower's belfry although it continued to stare out at nothing in particular. To Amity it was nothing short of unnerving; Every morning as she approached the grounds she'd see the school's giant Eyebell flicking from student to student and keeping a protective watch over the whole area. She'd heard its deep chiming countless times before the morning bell signalled class with a scream, as well as during lunch period and upon leaving the school each day. Seeing it so still and silent was like watching a dead thing.</p><p>"I know we said we would take a look around after having lunch and all, but maybe we should come back with someone another time. This place gives me the creeps." Amity muttered, and Luz turned to look at her with a sympathetic quirk of her lips.</p><p>"It <em>is</em> a lot more abandoned this way than I thought it would be." Luz agreed.</p><p>The two of them had to pass by Bonesborough Library to get to Hexside and since they saw the one prestigious building maintained and in use, they had just assumed the school would be as well. Apparently they were wrong.</p><p>"You said that Noceda and Blight wanted to come and pay their respects to Principal Bump too, right? We could come back and take a look around for any signs of portals then. Why don't we head back to the library for now?" Luz suggested reasonably.</p><p>That sounded just fine to Amity and she nodded enthusiastically. She picked up the wicker basket containing their litter and some leftover food and carefully placed it in her witch's bag. Luz was patting off the blanket they used to try and get off the bits of grass and dead leaves sticking to it. While she started rolling it up, Amity noticed a blue-skinned demon sauntering in their general direction. She hoped he was just heading for the school, or the memorials scattered around it.</p><p>Luz handed her the tightly rolled up blanket and she slipped it into her bag as well, not really getting to enjoy the ponderous little look Luz took on whenever she tried to stare at an item shrinking and disappearing into the portable pocket dimension. Amity was too focused on the blue-skinned demon, who was slowing down as he got closer to them and was definitely looking at them.</p><p>She debated keeping to the grass like they were on now but Luz was already heading for the paved area that ran from the school all the way off the grounds and back towards the library. Amity followed with a little furrow of her brows. She didn't have any reason to be suspicious of the random demon but something bothered her anyways.</p><p>"Hello little witchlings!" The demon said amicably just before they would have crossed paths. Luz returned the greeting with a friendly, "Hi mister!" and Amity with a quieter, "Hello.."</p><p>The demon tilted his head somewhat jarringly to the side. "I don't believe I've seen you two around town before, have you travelled from far away?"</p><p>"You could say that." Amity cut off whatever Luz was going to answer with and the girl gave her a curious little look.</p><p>"Glad you made it safely, Welcome to Bonesborough! Since it's pretty rough out there you two must have some decent skill. My name is Gombee and I am a member of the Home Groaner's Association! We oversee living operations, defensive procedures and medical care for the whole city among many other important tasks!"</p><p>"That sounds-," Luz tried to reply and again Amity cut her off. "Can we help you with something?" Her tone was clipped and straight to the point. Hopefully the quicker this guy said his piece the quicker he would leave.</p><p>The demon looked delighted. "Why I'm so glad you asked! The council has been putting together a venture to reclaim the east residential area of our fair city, and we're looking for skilled witches and demons to employ! If you two are adept fighters we need all the help we can get to relocate the corrupted creatures currently infesting it," Amity tried to interrupt him but this Gombee was far less susceptible to it than Luz was, "-and even if direct confrontation isn't your forte, there are many roles needing to be filled; Taking back Eastborough is a big job after all! But the rewards are many, think of the expansion and safe housing we can provide to more weary travellers such as yourselves!"</p><p>"Yes, alright, thank you." Amity broke eye contact long enough to spy Luz's hand and she scooped it up, mildly surprising the human. She really wanted to get back to the more populated area like the nicely maintained library.</p><p>"Positively elated to have your consideration! Should you be interested or have any questions about the venture please feel welcome to visit the HGA Council Headquarters on Top Pick Boulevard! You can't miss us, we're at the top of the big green hand in the middle of Centerville!" He grinned cheekily and thrust a webbed hand out towards Amity presumably for a friendly shake.</p><p>Part of her, the well-trained Blight family daughter part, urged her to take the offered hand and be polite even if she had no intentions of conducting any business with him what-so-ever. The rest of her recoiled instinctually at the thought and with no parents around to chastise her for her rudeness she managed to stay still and instead responded with a curt nod.</p><p>"Hope to see you there sometime and have a wonderful day!" He continued on seamlessly and swivelled to offer his hand to Luz instead. Amity<em> really</em> wished she would say something since Luz had an unsure smile on her face now, possibly picking up on Amity's unease, and her hand was hesitantly drawing up to shake his.</p><p>All three of them jumped when the school's giant Eyebell suddenly started ringing, and despite being afternoon the deep chiming was indicating that the time was six in the evening. The huge eye was staring directly at them.</p><p>"Ha! Yes, look at the time. Places to be and people to recruit! Think it over my friends!" Gombee said in a rush and bustled off in the direction of both the Library and possibly Centreville beyond it where he'd indicated the HGA headquarters was. She and Luz followed along after a few moments where Amity tried to dodge or vaguely answer the girl's questions regarding her defensiveness around the ordinary-looking demon.</p><p>Something just bothered her about him and that was enough for her.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>"I need some help in here!" The lanky pink demon rasped loudly. His voice was absolutely grating at that volume, and Noceda was pretty sure by now that his vocal intensity didn't get any quieter.</p><p>Two witches wearing a mix of clinic uniform and light body armor rushed into the emergency room and helped get the other thrashing demon back on her bed. She wasn't remotely humanoid and Noceda had no frame of reference as to what might have been her normal physical form when she came in for an advanced healing, but when the little dangly worm-things hanging below her eyes started squirming apparently <em>that </em> was abnormal enough to send her into a full-blown panic.</p><p>"Mrs. Daggerbrush I need you to calm down. We are going to administer an adva-" The demon doctor Noceda had been with for the last two hours tried to rasp at the housewife but she was screeching too loudly to hear him. He shot an irritated look at Noceda and waved impatiently for her to approach as the orderlies did their best to pin her to the bed and keep her scythe-like appendages from taking off someone's limb.</p><p><em>I'm gonna be lucky to get out of this day in one piece. Viney this isn't exactly what I had in mind when I said I'd help,</em> Noceda grouched to herself and skirted along the wall to get closer to Mrs. Daggerbrush's head just as Doctor Skeil spun up a second spellcircle. He used the magical energy he'd pulled out of a brass lamp to power a healing spell and applied it before the poor frightened demon on the table could injure one of the orderlies.</p><p>Even behind her sunglasses the light was blinding and Noceda hadn't been able to see the point of contact before it flashed anyways. With an aggravated grunt she leaned against a tool-covered counter while the four demons and witches in the room settled down.</p><p>"<em>Ooh</em>. Ooh sorry Doctor, that was so <em>scary</em>." The housewife demon spoke in a deep trembling voice and sat up slowly, looking a little dazed. "Are they gone? Please tell me they're gone."</p><p>"Yes, yes you'll be fine now. But the next time your corruptions are advancing this quickly please submit a request for priority treatment." The doctor spoke in a not-unkind voice but he was obviously stressed and ready to move on to his next patient. The orderlies helped Mrs. Daggerbrush get into her wheelchair and she glumly folded her five scythe-tipped ribbon-like appendages into her equivalent of a lap. They wheeled her out and Noceda pushed off the counter to help straighten up the room.</p><p>"You know she used run a dog-walking job while her kids were at school." Dr. Skeil rasped, pulling out a towel to mop up the thick yellow sweat left on his operating table. Noceda found the tankard of disinfectant spray knocked on its side near the door and brought it over. "Since she uses magic to walk she can't even keep up with the house chores, never mind her job or keeping up with her boys."</p><p>Noceda felt a deep pang of sympathy, and not for the first time today. "Seeing all these witches and demons like this every day must be so awful. How do you handle it?" She asked quietly, spraying the table down once he indicated she should. His vaguely reptilian face twisted in a little grimace.</p><p>"I don't. I just do what I can for as long as I can because I have to." He quickly picked up a few more things that had been knocked over. "The moment we healers fail is when Bonesborough goes downhill faster than a rat wurm with their rear end on fire." He shuffled over to the door and called out, "Next!" in his abrading voice.</p><p>Like Mrs. Daggerbrush, the next demon who came in wasn't even a witch and had never used spells before, but his body used magic to function and like a witch casting spells all the time he corrupted just the same. Each case Noceda saw back here in the area of the clinic that handled 'moderately severe' corruptions was just as heart-wrenching as the last.</p><p>"Next!"</p><p>The witch who came in was shivering but otherwise quiet. They had a manic look to their eyes and sat down eagerly. Noceda took the opportunity to get closer and swallowed nervously as the witch grinned widely at her, showing off several rows of sharp teeth.</p><p>Dr. Skeil pulled up in front of the patient and tilted his snout towards Noceda. "Any requests for observing this one?" He asked in a tired voice.</p><p>Still feeling a bit twitchy so close to those teeth, Noceda summoned up her courage and pushed in closer. Thankfully the brown-and-red-haired witch didn't seem to mind.</p><p>"I'm gonna try watching where the spell contacts through the lenses and with my eyes closed this time. Could you show me exactly where you're going to do it?" Noceda asked and the demon doctor pointed to his chosen spot a bit left of where Noceda knew the bile sac was. She nodded and stared at the area, then closed her eyes and tried not to let her focus wander off of the point she couldn't see any more.</p><p>"Okay, when you're ready maybe do a little countdown?"</p><p>She heard him sigh and he rasped, "3, 2, 1, casting."</p><p>As with each attempt before a veritable sunburst exploded behind her two forms of protection and she was left with useless afterimages of blinding nothingness. After all this repeated flashing her headache was getting pretty bad.</p><p>The witch thanked them and left promptly, looking much less crazed. Noceda excused herself to take a break, feeling immensely guilty as the doctor just nodded and called for the next patient and more artifacts to drain from.</p><p>Finding herself in one of the break rooms, Noceda hunched over the table she sat at with her head on her arms. There were a few nurses and other staff resting, looking equally beaten down and exhausted.</p><p>Viney's whole operation was a lot bigger than she had initially thought. Afflicted witches and demons streamed in at all hours and the clinic actually had a few mercenaries to cart over and guard the artifacts they used to drain magic from. For all the wonderful normalcy that she'd seen at the market and on her and Blight's walks from place to place, apparently <em>this</em> is what the behind-the-scenes looked like. And she'd been told that at least half of the citizens were proficient with healing glyphs and much of the rest getting lessons, so this ceaseless wave of patients was with 'the edge taken off'. If the citizens hadn't been helping mitigate some of the effects of each other's corruptions with the safe use of glyph magic, it would have been all too easy for the city to just collapse. Starting with the healers and guards.</p><p>A steaming cup of something was placed in front of her nose. Noceda looked up and saw Amelia, the green-haired witch from yesterday who'd gotten them through to Viney so quickly.</p><p>"You look like you need this more than me." She sat down and perched an elbow on the table to cradle her head.</p><p>Noceda gingerly took the cup and sipped from it, feeling awful for taking the witch's beverage but not wanting to appear rude by refusing it.</p><p>"I thought me and Blight had it bad out on the road these last few months, but you guys..." She blew a hot breath out, "You guys just don't get to stop <em>at all,</em> do you?"</p><p>The tall witch shrugged and stifled a yawn. "Yeah well, the alternative is we go back to the hell from a year-plus ago." She gave a half-hearted chuckle. "You can see why we need that advanced healing glyph so badly. We can try to keep this up for as long as we can but even if our iron-will is fuelled by the Titan itself.. eventually we're going to run out of artifacts to drain. Then it's 'Goodbye Bonesborough'."</p><p><em>Holy shit, no pressure.</em> Noceda placed her cup back on the table and groaned into her arms.</p><p>"Where's Viney? I haven't seen her in a while." She mumbled from her limb cocoon. Amelia didn't answer right away but Noceda heard her turn in her seat, probably glancing at the clock on the wall. "Bit past lunch... she's probably with Willow." She answered matter-of-factly. Noceda peeked up at her.</p><p>"Doing a healing session?" She asked, feeling timid for some reason. The witch nodded and unwrapped her lunch that could maybe <em>possibly</em> be likened to a burrito made of jello.</p><p>"Yeah, she does the big weekly sessions with Willow. Takes longer than a normal session, that witch can take a LOT of magic before she starts reaching saturation. Of course if she didn't provide her own artifacts there's no way Viney could keep up with her."</p><p>Noceda felt a little mirror-shaped stab of guilt run through her and she vowed to go see the plant-witch at the end of her day here no matter how tired she would be.</p><p>"She keeps us well-supplied too," Amelia continued on through mouthfuls of her lunch. "It's only because of the extra cache of relics and such from Willow that Viney can have us healing pets and livestock. You wouldn't catch the Groaner's hospital healing pets. Heck, there's a lot of <em>people</em> they send to us because they're not considered "necessary for Bonesborough's survival", which is groaner-speak for anyone not part of their committee, rich-witches and supporters. You know they're putting together a petition to force Willow to hand over her relic stockpile?"</p><p>Ice laced up and down Noceda's arms and she straightened up slowly, looking at the green-haired witch with barely-contained rage. "They <em>what?"</em></p><p>She continued eating like they were chatting about the weather. "Oh yeah. We healer-folk talk. They're keeping it hush-hush for now but they'll make it public soon. They say they're worried that Willow's healing is too expensive to maintain and that she should let her resources go to 'the city', which is noggleshit because they'd probably just hoard her stuff for themselves and besides, without Willow we're sitting ducks for the next wave of boar demons, or raiders, or a gorenado, hell if-"</p><p>"How are you so calm about this?" Noceda didn't mean to shout, but this was her <em>friend </em>and the city's <em>protector</em> for fuck's sake! And those HGA bastards wanted to just toss her aside? "That sounds like a big fucking deal to me? Aren't you worried they might succeed?"</p><p>Amelia had leaned away somewhat from her outburst but continued working on her food. "Yeah, like, it's not a great situation but there's always something threatening to tear this whole place apart. We literally lost a third of the Bonesguard last month to the latest surge of boar demons. We always seem to be on the brink of collapse but we do what we can, you know?" Noceda just stared at her with her mouth hanging open. "Besides, it's not like they could actually <em>do </em>anything. Even if they got like a bunch of the citizens' approval, Willow's too powerful and the outsiders and mercenaries won't risk fighting her. We're supposed to be on the same side, the HGA would lose way too much face if they tried to order the Bonesguard to attack without her instigating it or something."</p><p>Noceda cradled her forehead with a hand. This was nuts. As welcoming as the city felt, the threat of falling apart was so ever-present on every level that infighting between entire districts of the city was casual break room talk.</p><p>She <em>had</em> to find that advanced healing glyph. It must exist.</p><p>Right?</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>"You have to ask yourself one question: Go ahead, make my day," Gus said with intensity as he stared down an enormous boar demon.</p><p>"That's not even a question." Blight rose a brow but didn't take her eyes off of her own adversary. Her boar was surprisingly on all fours and pawed at the ground threateningly.</p><p>"It's a human thing. Ask Noceda, she'll probably be able to explain it better than me." He replied coolly and tensed as the huge boar began to stomp towards him. The movement triggered Blight's to charge as well and she <em>really</em> wanted to drop the sword Gus gave her and use her claws, but that would defeat the purpose of her training with it.</p><p>The furious demon was nearly upon her and like Gus had shown her, she spun left and tried to rake it across the eye with the tip of her weapon. The blade sliced through the demon's ear and clanged off of its tusk, falling short of the eye entirely. While her dim-witted foe ran past her and scrambled to turn around, Blight watched as Gus spun perfectly and nicked his boar right on target. It roared in anger and whirled to crush and stomp the tall dark witch but Gus stuck to its new blind spot easily, and when he saw an opening his blade laid open the throat of the raging demon.</p><p>Some of the soldiers and guards further away cheered, one was even taking notes on a little scroll. Gus taunted the gasping demon and walked backwards slowly, leading it around in a wobbly pattern.</p><p>Loud hoofbeats were suddenly right in her ear and Blight cursed herself for not paying attention. She thrust her sword out and the demon rammed her, the blade slicing along the thick skin of its snout and directing it right into the creature's mad blue eye and then the brain behind it. She barely managed to not get run down by dashing backwards with it and switching a hand to hold one of those big curled tusks. When the demon slowed and stumbled, falling over dead she could hear whoops coming from the rest of their party.</p><p>"Okay, now that was awesome, but totally a luck-shot." Gus called from across the clearing they were in. He was still leading his boar in circles and with the amount of blood pouring from its wounds the beast wouldn't be following him much longer.</p><p>"You wish. It's all skill over here, this sword stuff isn't so hard." Blight called back with a swagger in her voice. She jammed a boot against her dead foe's face and pulled the sword out of the eye socket it was buried in. Or well, she pulled out <em>part </em>of the sword.</p><p>"Oops." Blight muttered dumbly, staring at the six inches of blade still left attached to the hilt.<br/><br/></p><p>        Their party consisted of herself, Gus and one of the strongest mercenaries, Puhagi, a purple-haired witch with a wry sense of humour who was a former bounty-hunter. They had a little under a dozen soldiers and some trainees with them. They were mopping up the rest of the boars in the area that had been terrorizing a group of runners guiding an artifact-laden caravan from a nearby town. A very dead nearby town.</p><p>By the time the little eyeball-headed messenger demon had led Blight to Gus, he was well outside of the city walls with his group and deeply entrenched in a fight against a dozen or more raging boar demons. Once they got the number down to a manageable amount, Gus decided to give her and the others a lesson in swordsmanship. There was a great deal more about footwork and less about stabbing than Blight would have guessed, or liked.</p><p>They were waiting on a signal flare from the other Captain, another former bounty-hunter named Mawey. He was the same green-skinned demon with an eyepatch that had pulled Gus away after their sparring match yesterday. Once they had a heading they would meet with the other group and go to where a 'concerning number of boars were gathering'.</p><p>"Aww come on, Blight. That's your second sword! Try not to be so rough with them, hey?" Gus whined as he approached. He called over one of the trainees and told them to dig the other pieces of sword out of the boar demon's skull, citing that he'd then be even for 'last week's debacle'. The poor kid certainly didn't look like he relished the given chore.</p><p>"It's not my fault they're so fragile." Blight huffed and handed over the broken weapon when prompted. Gus shook his head as he retrieved another one and gave it to her. Then he referred to his own sword while he cleaned it with a cloth.</p><p>"See this guy here? Had him nearly from the start." He wiped off the blood and looked at the gleaming weapon adoringly. "This sword has saved my ass more times than I can count. You gotta love your weapon, Blight, treat it right. And someday it might be something you can rely on like you would your own hand, or leg. It becomes an extension of you!"</p><p>"Mhm." She shot the sword in her hand an unimpressed look. Gus was giving it a regretful little grimace like he was silently apologizing to it. She liked the feeling of slicing things up and not necessarily getting her hands and claws coated with gore, but using a tool to fight rather than her own body and magic was just so unfamiliar.</p><p>A purple flare shot up and burst against the sky north-west of them.</p><p>"Alright!" Gus shouted to the whole group, "Those of you with the cart stay here and the rest with me. Let's go see how the Captain made out and find us a boar bonanza!" Most of them cheered back enthusiastically.</p><p> </p><p>        Almost an hour later they were close to where the flare had been sent up from. Along the way Gus had been filling her in on the big battle they had last month that took many of their skilled fighters. It finally explained why so many of his current soldiers were so young or fresh; He had to train up the replacements and fast.</p><p>"Why are we going <em>towards</em>  this big group of demons then? Wouldn't it make more sense to battle them from way up on the walls?" Blight asked, swinging her sword around just for the sake of doing something with her hand.</p><p>The purple-haired witch Puhagi snickered. "Yeah it would be safer for <em>us</em>, but whenever the wall takes damage then the plant-freak has to fix it. She uses more magic, she needs more healing. So Cap here has us engage whenever they cluster like this. We're protecting the wall instead of the other way around, isn't that a riot?"</p><p>Where the sharp tongue had been funny when directed at less serious matters, Blight agreed more with Gus's disapproving look for this topic.</p><p>"Firstly, I've asked you not to call her that. And second, if you were listening to what I was telling Blight for the last like, twenty minutes you'd get why we need to keep them away from the wall when they're in greater numbers like this." Gus looked legitimately irritated and Blight felt some of it rub off on her as well. Her errant slashes with her sword got a bit more aggressive and the purple-haired witch took notice enough to wisely move a few steps away.</p><p>Gus continued, "It's not just about keeping Willow's magic use down, which <em>is</em> important, but they also cause too much damage and ruckus near the city and call others to them. When they're right at our door we have no choice but to finish the fight, out here at least we can pick some off and bail if there's too many or they get too riled up."</p><p>Blight tuned out the other two witches for a moment while she reflected on what she could remember from their battle at the Owl House. The more their fighting raged on the more boars came flooding into the area. She didn't remember much after she had her abomination punch a hole in the front wall and rip a chunk out soon after, but she knew even if she hadn't gone a <em>little</em> overboard with the power glyphs she would have still been exhausted. The only reason they had gotten away was because the house demon had made itself a perfect target and Amity had somehow managed to cast a strong-enough illusory fire to hide them. With the battle Gus and the rest had fought, they had no choice but to fight each wave of demons until they stopped trying to ram or climb the walls. Willow was a force to be reckoned with, but she wasn't as effective at a distance and there had supposedly been over a <em>hundred</em> boars attacking that day.</p><p>"Speaking of gathering forces," Blight tuned back in sharply when Gus directed an eager look at her, "Did Willow ask you and Noceda about joining us for the attack on where they're coming from?"</p><p>Blight nodded slowly. "She did say something about it. I didn't know you had already found the source of them though."</p><p>Puhagi punched the air in front of her a few times with a wicked glint in her eye. "Yeah, they're coming from a cave west of here. We're gonna lure them all out of the area and send our best fighters in to go stop whatever's making those monsters!"</p><p>Blight looked at Gus for confirmation, and he nodded. "More or less. We're just waiting for enough of our new recruits to get up to speed. But if you and Noceda were with us, I know we'd have a huge boost in the mission succeeding!" He brandished a fist to emphasize his point. Blight couldn't help but wonder what his face would do if he found out that Noceda couldn't even look at one of the boar demons without freezing up. She mentally slapped the mean thought away.</p><p>"These demons have been giving you so much trouble, but Noceda and I didn't start to see them until we were in the Bonesborough area. If they've been around for all this time I don't get how they haven't spread across the whole Isle." Blight voiced out loud and sheathed her sword finally.</p><p>"Yeah, you guys passed through Collagentown to get here, right? Noceda told me on the way to Willow's. You must have passed by a huge fissure, right?" He asked cheerfully.</p><p><em>Oh yes. I remember the gorge and the hair-brained scheme required to cross it, </em>Blight narrowed her eyes imperceptibly at the memory.  </p><p>"Well that thing goes all the way from South Harbour to further north than we've cared to look. It effectively fences 'em in and turns most of them back to us eventually. They keep out the crazies and don't let many of those super mutated plants you sometimes see grow in the area but they've become a much bigger problem than they solve now. Oh hey, there's Mawey's crew!" She was left blinking as Gus suddenly took off to consort with the other Captain and greet the two dozen or so mix of soldiers and mercenaries with him.</p><p>Blight could hear the faint tell of a lot of large bodies moving around to her left. Their two groups were on high ground and not far from them was a ledge, which upon careful inspection led down to what was probably a farm at some point but was now a stomped flat dirtyard. There was a massive flower sprouting out of the remains of a barn and the whole thing looked like it was made of crystal and mottled flesh. Thirty or more boars were in the area and attacking it, slowly punching chunks out of its glassy surfaces and making the rest of it bleed purple wherever they tore the 'skin'. Several more of the demons were collapsed and foaming at the mouth, exhausted from days of antagonizing the unnatural plant.</p><p><strong>"Hiya Miss Amity."</strong> Blight craned her neck up to take in the enormous red demon, Braxus, one of the kids she used to read to for extra credit in school. <strong>"Ready to throw down, Bonesborough-style? We're gonna kick their stupid boar butts!" </strong>He stuck a huge tongue out at the group just down the way from them and slammed the handle of his person-sized battle ax against his other hand. On the other side of him Blight saw a stocky witch running her fingers lovingly over the spikes of a large flail and eyeing the wild group with obvious bloodlust.</p><p>Blight looked back down at the boars, running and punching and charging at their immobile target, completely unaware of the three dozen or so armed witches and demons planning to attack them soon.</p><p><em>Sorry Noceda, </em>Blight glanced at the unfamiliar sword in its pretty little sheath hanging by her hip. Her fingers itched to have a protective layer of fire surrounding them.</p><p>
  <em>I might end up using a little magic.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>There were many clocks adorning the walls of Bonesborough Library, although only a few of them were actually working. The last one she'd seen had informed her that it was just after 4pm. Had she not been in a different dimension, this could have been a typical day after school.</p><p>Despite the calm and order one expected of a library, Luz's heart hammered in her chest. Her curiosity was going to be the end of her.</p><p>The temptation felt like a stronger force than gravity as her hand inched ever so slowly towards the thick tome entitled 'The Lone Witch &amp; The Secret Room'. This was the book that had been the trigger to open Amity's secret club room on the Boiling Isles. There was a chance that this one, or one near it, would open up into a secret room belonging to Blight. Her fingers wiggled so close to the spine of the book she could almost feel the texture of the bound leather and embossed words of the title.</p><p><em>"A-hem." </em> Amity cleared her throat and was standing <em>right behind Luz.</em></p><p>"AAHI wasn't touching it!" She whipped around and wrapped both arms around her own head like they'd been there the whole time. Yup! Because that's how she perused libraries, arms super wrapped around her head! It's a human thing. Yeah!</p><p>"Mhm." The witch was giving her an unimpressed look and guided her away from the tempting shelf of books that potentially hid a cool secret hidey-place filled with personal stuff and tidbits about the wild and mysterious older witch they travelled with. <em>A peek into the inner life of Amity's angsty alternate self!</em>  She felt so completely foiled.</p><p>"Have you found anything to look through that might actually be helpful to us?" Amity asked pointedly, raising a brow at her and gestured with the handful of books she'd collected while off on her own. Luz grinned guiltily, and glanced at the tall shelves of books to pick over the titles at lightning speed while she came up with an answer.</p><p>"I, um... I found 'Otabin the Bookmaker'! It's almost exactly like the one back on the Boiling Isles. Yeah, so at least we know that the books here are pretty much the same as the ones from our dimension." She smiled hugely to try and cover up the feeling like she should have been doing more.</p><p>"Anything else?" The witch inquired, although from her expression and tone of voice Luz could tell she wasn't expecting an impressive answer, which was, yaknow. Ouch.</p><p>"Well, it took me a while to get through a few chapters. You know, to confirm the similarities. I'm not a super-fast reader." She pursed her lips and glanced away from Amity's flat look. She knew that wasn't the issue, but she got distracted easily! She hadn't been around books she enjoyed for like a week other than her one volume of Azura she'd brought with her for the camping trip.</p><p>Amity sighed and quirked her lips in what looked like a mix of one part mild frustration and four parts begrudging acceptance. She handed two of the books she was holding to Luz so she could read the titles.</p><p>"Here, try looking for things that seem like they're related to these topics." She said, and Luz squinted at the fancy lettering of the thicker tome. 'Theories of the Multiverse: We Are Not Alone'. The other one's title was a trio of complex-looking runes. The left-most one kind of looked like a juggling horse on a unicycle.</p><p>"Any books on wilderness survival might come in handy as well. We might need to know how to take care of ourselves in case we end up on our own at some point." Amity continued, holding the other two books she'd found protectively while she scanned the shelf they were near and dismissed the entire thing as unrelated and unhelpful.</p><p>Wait what?</p><p>"Why would we be on our own? Noceda and Blight know all about that stuff and they're helping us." Luz asked in a rush, feeling like she was missing something important.</p><p>Amity glanced at her and then away again, too quickly for Luz to get a read on her expression. "Well, you never know. Things happen. If we can't find anything helpful here then the next thing we were going to try was to find Eda, right? Noceda and Blight may not want to leave anytime soon, especially if they're taking the time to discover a new glyph and help out with missions around town."</p><p>Honestly, Luz was kind of hoping that would happen. She <em>wanted </em>to help out around Bonesborough, and it was nice and safe here! "Yeah, but couldn't we just wait for them to finish with that stuff? It'd probably go faster if we helped them too."</p><p>Amity glanced at her again, she looked.. concerned. She wouldn't keep eye contact for very long though and it was making something inside Luz ache.</p><p>"We're supposed to be finding a way home Luz. They're working on their problems and we're working on ours. Besides, when we get back home maybe we'll be able to find help that doesn't involve us with deadly threats and horrible mutating magic."</p><p>Luz supposed that was true. Maybe if they could make a stable portal like what Eda had to the Human Realm, then Luz could even send all sorts of things to this world. Artifacts, food, witches who could heal, researcher people, anything that could help!</p><p>Thinking about Eda made her stomach drop a little bit. She was probably frantic by now. During the couple weeks after their encounter with Belos and the portal being destroyed, Eda had been looking into a way to get her home sometime before she was meant to return from summer camp. The feeling of 'trying to find a way home' was almost background noise to her by now. It's not that she didn't want to get back to the Boiling Isles, and after that, the Human Realm.. it's just that she didn't want to think about going back <em>so soon.</em></p><p>Hmm... If they could find a way to re-open the portals they'd come through, Amity could go back and let Eda know that Luz was okay and Eda could keep looking into how to get back to the Human Realm for later, assuming she and Amity didn't find it out themselves already. Maybe with a way back Amity wouldn't be so worried about being stuck in this world and she would want to help Luz with trying to save it! Getting home was important, but helping the people of Turm Isle was important too! If focusing on getting home first would help Amity with not feeling trapped then that's what Luz would do. Between the two of them and with their older counterparts they were bound to find a way to help everyone!</p><p>Luz realized she'd been staring at the same book for a few minutes and that she was alone again. She scrambled down the aisle to find Amity and show her just how pumped and ready to research portals she was.</p><p>She and Amity would find a way home, then the two of them along with Blight and Noceda would help this world out and when everyone was safe again and summer vacation ended then she'd go home to the Human Realm. At least her mom would be happy to see her back even if no one else was. Perfect plan.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Yay. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>The sky was starting to deepen into its usual wash of gorgeous evening colours (or it would be if it weren't partly concealed behind a veil of dingy ash).</p><p>Noceda pushed her way out the front doors of Viney's clinic and weaved through the various demons and witches waiting their turn to be seen. It didn't take her long to find Blight with her distinctive mane of green hair claiming an entire bench for her own and apparently napping.</p><p>She drew up to the witch and would have loved to startle her awake with a raspberry to the tummy if there wasn't the threat of ten sharp claws reflexively digging into her for it. Instead, she called her name just loud enough to be heard over the general white noise of the people around them and kneeled down in front of the bench. When Blight sleepily grunted an acknowledgement she draped herself across the witch's torso and used her toned stomach as a sort of pillow.</p><p>"Hey." Noceda heard Blight mumble, and felt an arm drape over her back. "Mmm. G'd evning." She mumbled back. She'd love to just curl up right now and nap for a little while actually...</p><p>After a few moments she whined, loudly, as the witch started sitting up and stretching. She ended up getting sort of poured onto the bench instead with Blight sitting next to her head while she worked out the stiffness in her muscles. It never failed to surprise Noceda that her back didn't hurt after sleeping in odd places like this.</p><p>"How come you're wearing a different outfit?" She asked and poked at the revealed skin of her legs below the skirt. She had definitely not been wearing that when they parted. She cozied her face up into the side of her warm thigh and didn't at all feel motivated to get up.</p><p>"Roughed up my other clothes. Changed on the way back. I have to remember to get the strap fixed on my bag or I'm going to end up losing it."</p><p>Noceda curled up more and more against Blight's thigh and legitimately worried that she might fall asleep kneeling in front of a bench.</p><p>"I got to use a sword today."</p><p>She felt the grin slowly consume her face and kneaded whatever skin her fingers were in contact with. "Woah.. that's hot. 'My samurai-witch girlfriend', I'd absolutely read that manga." She heard Blight snort from somewhere above her and reply, "Girlfriend? Since when did our 'thing' pick up a label?"</p><p>"Don't like that?" Noceda stuck her nose against that pale skin and breathed in deeply, "How about beloved," She planted a kiss, "my wild tempest", another kiss, "mi princesa," and another, "mon ange~." She wracked her brain for more disgusting fluff of any linguistic origin that she knew and the more flustered she felt Blight getting the tighter she clung to her and she couldn't be damned what the other people in the area thought of their little display.</p><p> </p><p>        Some dinner purchased after leaving the clinic's immediate vicinity and a very much-needed second wind later, Noceda trudged up to Willow's door and eyed the handle with some distaste. She was so ready to call it a night but she had <em>promised</em> herself she would tell Willow about the mirror and find out how much they'd owe her for it.</p><p>Blight had informed her that Gus was wiped from their battle outside the city (and she had used the word 'battle' but then refused to divulge any further details), and he wanted to postpone their hangout until tomorrow. That suited Noceda <em>just fine</em> although she did have this last thing to do before she could accept a blissful conclusion to her day. She didn't figure Blight would want to come in with her to meet with the plant-witch (and she certainly looked like she didn't want to) but she was a complete trooper today and knocked on the door before Noceda could lift a floppy fist towards it.</p><p>Soon enough they were across the building-sized threshold and in the tall, dimly-lit space that housed Willow's towering form.</p><p>"I take it you both had a productive day?" Her voice reverberated along the vines and flowers near them. Noceda drew in a deep breath and let it out, then looked way, way up to see her friend watching them with her glowing eyes.</p><p>"I think Blight did. Me, not so much." She briefly considered lying down on the floor while she spoke with Willow; they hadn't really given her notice of their arrival outside of her seeing them approach and she didn't have the 'cozy' setup from before out permanently it looked like. If she lay down though she might start falling asleep again.</p><p>"Hey, I'm pretty wiped out so I won't bug you for long Willow. Uh, we kind of broke one of your artifacts by accident and I wanted to know how much we owe you for it."</p><p>She couldn't tell if her friend blinked or if that was just her own tired perception of the glowing spots that made up her eyes. "I do appreciate you compensating for the loss, we are rather tight on resources after all. Which artifact was damaged?"</p><p>"It was a-, uh," She glanced at Blight who finished the sentence for her. "It was a doubling mirror. Pretty powerful one." The green-haired witch's voice was clipped but she didn't seem as uncomfortable as when they were here the last two times.</p><p>"Ah, yes I know the one. I could easily consider that part of your payment should you take me up on the offer to join the attack of those cursed boar demons." She said with a tempting lilt to her tone.</p><p>"Yeah, we're still batting that around. I've got power glyphs on me, and we could teach people around here to use more types of glyph. Like, the springwater glyph and fire glyph. Luz and Amity are willing to do safer tasks around the city too if that helps. Also there's a shard of the mirror that still works if that makes any difference."</p><p>Willow seemed to consider the information for a moment and then answered without much inflection. "Keep the shard, maybe you'll find it helpful. I can accept your other forms of trade but please do take more time to consider my offer regarding the boar demons."</p><p>Noceda nodded, too tired to insist on paying her now if she wasn't interested. "Yeah, fine Willow. I'll get back to you on that soon alright?"</p><p>She seemed to accept the answer and Noceda said her goodnights but before she could turn to leave Willow stopped her.</p><p>"One more thing Noceda. I meant to ask you about this yesterday but I'm afraid it slipped my mind. Are you aware that you're under the effects of a local time-manipulation curse? I can't tell what the base function is but it's speeding up your aging process."</p><p>She didn't really want to know when or how Willow had been able to gather that information from her but it wasn't important right now. "Yeah, I'm aware of it. I accidentally set a Nine-Lives curse on myself a while back." She <em>reallllly</em> wanted to head back to the safe house and crash.</p><p>"If you happen to come across another copy I would be very interested in trading for it." The plant witch said with just a little more purpose than the simple off-hand comment seemed to warrant.</p><p>
  <em>Just when I think she can't get creepier, she outdoes herself.</em>
</p><p>"Noted. Night Willow." She waved up at her friend and was finally bid a good night in return. Blight was eagerly awaiting her in the plant-walled hallway and Noceda followed after her just a bit more alert than she had been a couple minutes ago.</p><p>       </p><p>        It was good and dark by the time they finally trudged in to the safe house. Noceda didn't call up a greeting or anything in case the two younger teens were already asleep, and indeed she didn't hear anything when she paused for a moment to listen. She could see the faintest hint of glowing at the top of the stairs from what must be a fresh light glyph.</p><p>Blight padded on silently past her and through the hall towards the kitchen heedless of the lack of lights down here. Noceda picked up one of the glyph papers left by the door and activated a light ball to hover overhead and gently illuminate the area since she was far less confident in the dark than the witch was. Half-way down the hall she swore she heard a soft little chuckle from Blight which piqued her interest immediately.</p><p>She entered the kitchen and her light ball lit up the area enough for her to see the green-haired witch smirking at a little open carton containing two cupcakes and two smudges where two more had likely been. One cupcake had the name "Blight" written in green icing on it and was decorated with white or light blue frosting. The other one said "Noceda" in dark writing with a little chocolate flower next to it.</p><p>"That's really sweet of them." Noceda smiled down at the treats. She had really come to enjoy having their younger counterparts around, even if they could be annoying sometimes. She felt somehow... rounded out. They were teaching her and Blight more about themselves each day, and she was thankful for it.</p><p>Blight slowly backed away so she leaned against the kitchen counter with her arms crossed and studied Noceda with a look that gave nothing away. Noceda knew that look and waited to see if she would say whatever was on her mind unprompted. Blight remained silent though, so after a moment she gave in.</p><p>"What is it?" Noceda asked gently. The witch let her gaze drift away to some vague point across the room.</p><p>"You're getting awfully attached to those two. They have to go back to their world, sooner rather than later."</p><p>Noceda breathed in deeply, savouring the scent of pastry and icing and let it out slowly. She could see how invested Luz was becoming in their journey, and Noceda wasn't doing much to temper that because she found their presence to be... well, nice. Helpful in a bunch of different ways.</p><p>"Yeah, I know they do. We'll get 'em home Blight." She said with a little sigh. She didn't really want to think about that right now though. She picked up the 'Noceda' cupcake and admired it before going to take a bite.</p><p>"You're going to have a hard time sleeping if you eat that now."</p><p>Yeah, thanks <em>Mom</em>. She sent the witch a flat look. Then she got an idea and put her cupcake down and picked up the 'Blight' one instead. She sauntered around the table with the treat in hand while the green-haired witch raised a single delicate eyebrow and let her arms slide down so her elbows rested on the counter instead.</p><p>Noceda pulled in close, parking herself to fit along Blight's body like a puzzle piece and she placed her free hand on the countertop right next to her hip. She could see the slight shifting of the witch's shoulders out of the corners of her eyes and feel warm arms draw up around her but Noceda didn't break her dominating stare into those golden orbs. She held the cupcake up between them and purred, "If I get all sugar-high you can tire me out right?"</p><p>Ever so slowly she let her tongue extend out and with plenty of satisfaction she noticed Blight watching it with interest. She lapped up a goodly portion of the white icing and part of the name Blight and was about to say, "Would you like a taste?" except that-</p><p>"<em>Bleahh!?"  </em>Her eyes widened and she launched away from the witch quickly enough to make her stumble forwards a step or two since her arms were still wrapped around Noceda's shoulders. Eyes watering and tongue lolling out, she spotted the kitchen sink and dashed over to it, spitting out the stinging-freezing sludge. It took her a moment to recognize the taste.</p><p>"Is this... toothpaste?" She looked at the partly-lapped at cupcake in her hand with sheer confusion and then jerked up to meet Blight's expression as it cracked into an incredulous little chuckle.</p><p>Noceda just stared as the witch leaned back against the counter again, wrapping her arms around her stomach and just enjoyed a little laugh to herself. She didn't even need an explanation right away, it was such an oddly light-hearted scene to watch from her.</p><p>Blight reached up and thumbed away a bit of moisture from the corner of her eye and had a guilty little smile on her face. Noceda waited patiently to be filled in.</p><p>"I think that was meant for me." She regarded the cupcake with an approving smile.</p><p>"That would explain your name on it. Why toothpaste?" Noceda asked and spit in the sink to try and lessen the burning minty flavour left on her tongue. Blight snickered at her predicament.</p><p>"I kind of... sorta... pranked Luz and Amity this morning while you were getting showered." Noceda swivelled her head dramatically towards her, probably looking quite dumbstruck. "That was probably supposed to be payback." The witch finished with her bottom lip trapped guiltily between her teeth.</p><p>"You.. pranked... Luz and Amity... huh." For a moment everything seemed so surreal. Was it still night? Are they in Bonesborough right now or did she dream that? Blight was holding a hand up to her chin like she was trying to look casual but she was clearly trying to hide her burgeoning grin.</p><p><em>Who was it that was getting too attached now?</em>  She let the thought whip by and with a final spit into the sink she sent the witch a sneaky look and padded on by her towards the door leading out into the hallway.</p><p>"Where are you going?" She heard in an amused voice from behind her as she reached the bottom of the staircase to the top floor. She tried to ascend with the least amount of creaking possible and hissed in response, <em>"Revenge." </em>All she heard back was some muffled snickering and then Noceda turned her full focus upwards. She reached the top without too much of a stair-based cacophony and she tip-toed down the hall towards the open door with a light ball floating up in the corner.</p><p>On the other end of the oddly-elongated room Noceda could sort of make out the couch that was close enough to the window to be illuminated by a sliver of moonlight from around the curtain. She snuck closer, mindful of the large shapeless mass close by that was likely whoever wasn't sleeping on the couch. When she was right by it though, she saw that the sleeping bag on the couch was empty. Instead, both girls were nestled together in the sleeping bag on the floor. Somewhere in Noceda's cynical little heart she felt a fluttery warmth spreading.</p><p><em>Absolutely ideal. </em>She grinned maliciously to herself.</p><p>She noticed the little side table next to the couch that was pulled away from the wall to match where the couch arm was and she ducked behind it, making herself small and unnoticeable. <em>Blight may have started this war, but I'mma end it, </em>she thought evilly and raised her palms to her mouth in preparation for the loudest, most obnoxious mimicry of flatulence she was capable of. Just as she took a deep breath she spotted a few of the items lying on the table right next to her.</p><p>Immediately, all thoughts of pranks were forgotten. Her mouth dropped open at the sight of it, lying right there and it seemed <em>so obvious </em>all of a sudden.</p><p>Luz's phone.</p><p>She snatched the device with the bat-wing case and looked at it incredulously. <em>How</em> could it not have occurred to her before, this was how she'd discovered her very first glyph! Back when she still didn't know any magic and she'd been pestering Eda to teach her, <em>anything</em> really, that whole clusterfuck that was finding out about Eda's curse led to Noceda discovering that a frame in her video of the witch from earlier that night held a light glyph.</p><p>
  <em>This might be the key to discovering the healing glyph! Since I can't look at the process with my eyes, maybe I need something else to do it for me!</em>
</p><p>She tapped the home button and she thought for a second that the phone was dead, but when she held the power button for a moment she found it had just been turned off. Thankfully the brightness had been turned all the way down so it didn't blind her when it came back on.</p><p>She waited impatiently for the loading screen to go away so she could check if the camera was working, but just as the vaguely-familiar look of a smartphone with all its little icons and such greeted her.. she froze.</p><p>Mom.</p><p>There, set as the background picture, Luz and a woman who looked so very close to the Camila she knew were hugging and laughing into the camera. They looked so happy. So very, very happy. Her eyes looked a little bit tired, she was in her scrubs and likely had come home from work just before this was taken. But those eyes... those eyes were filled with such warmth like Noceda hadn't felt in so, so long.</p><p>The screen blinked out into darkness and Noceda smashed the home button again to bring up the softly glowing picture like it was as necessary as air. She couldn't look away from that face. Bitter-sweet nostalgia curled and twisted inside her and she wasn't sure if she was maybe holding the phone too tightly. Her fingers ached. Her chest ached. Everything ached.</p><p>
  <em>'If you can't accept me for who I am, then maybe I don't belong here!'</em>
</p><p>I shouldn't have said that. I didn't mean it. I was angry.</p><p>
  <em>'Mija your choices are causing us both great pain, can't you see? You need to stop acting out like you did today, they are going to expel you!'</em>
</p><p>I could see it. I just didn't know how to stop.</p><p>The screen blacked out again and she pressed the home button almost immediately to bring it back.</p><p>
  <em>'They should then! I'll leave school and get a job. Better than all the useless drivel and shitty people I put up with every day-'</em>
</p><p>
  <em>'Do not take up that tone with me! You will complete your education, do you want to end up like some bum on the street with no future?'</em>
</p><p>That was kinda harsh Mami. But then again, I thought I was indestructible. At least, I acted like it. I didn't let it show when something fazed me.</p><p>The screen blacked out. She turned it back on.</p><p>
  <em>'Oh so that's what you think I'll become? Some worthless human trash because I can't fit in at school? I'm stronger than that Mami, you should be on my side, not punishing me for every little thing!'</em>
</p><p>Boy, if I knew what I'd be putting myself through in just a few years... I'd probably still have left but, I would have done it very differently.</p><p>
  <em>'I guide you because I love you Mija! You do not have enough life experience to know what the right choices are!'</em>
</p><p>
  <em>'You can't decide my whole life for me! I'm not you! I don't want to <strong>be</strong> you!'</em>
</p><p>We were both so sick of each other's attitude that there was no way we could see eye-to-eye.</p><p>
  <em>'You don't have to be me! I want you to be who you are! Your best self!'</em>
</p><p>
  <em>'Whatever perfect little picture you have of me in your head, I'll never live up to it. I'll never be enough! I'm never good enough for anyone here!"</em>
</p><p>The phone went dark. It wouldn't turn back on. She had been too lost in her own head to notice the sliver of red indicating the battery was dying, and the numbers next to it counting down. 3%.. 2%... 1%... blackness.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It took her a long time to pick herself up from behind that little end table.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Somewhere else in the city of Bonesborough...</em>
</p><p> </p><p>                                     </p><p>The shadows were long and erratic as the fireplace sputtered agitatedly for a moment. Then they became calm, so the witch returned their attention to the informant hovering at the other end of the lavishly-furnished room.</p><p>"Were you able to find anything else regarding the <em>newcomers </em>who are so friendly with that horrid plant monster?"</p><p>The demon's blue skin appeared a sickly sort of brown-purple in this lighting. Very unappealing.</p><p>"I found the smaller two snooping around Hexside. They don't seem to be much of a threat. However, one appears to be a human and the witching looks like another child of the Blights."</p><p>The witch's brow raised delicately and they placed their glass on the desk while they considered the news. "A second human? Are you quite sure about that?"</p><p>"Veritably. They share a great many features. I wouldn't be surprised as to guess they might be related."</p><p>The demon wrung his webbed fingers in a nervous habit that had always bothered the witch. It made him seem so... seedy. Perhaps the description wasn't entirely misplaced though.</p><p>"... Very well. Send word to the Emperor that what he seeks is within our walls."</p><p>"As you will have it, Councillor." The demon acknowledged the command and dipped into a shallow bow. He began to turn for the door but the witch stopped him with a brief clearing of their throat. "Oh and... one other thing."</p><p>The demon looked at them, dutifully awaiting further orders.</p><p>"Let the Blights know that some of their spawn is in town. I possibly recall hearing about one or two of them going missing at some point. Perhaps they'd like to retrieve them."</p><p>"As you will have it."</p><p>The demon slipped out of the room not unlike a shadow himself and the witch regarded their glass of very expensive wine.</p><p>
  <em>I do hope that a generous finder's fee will be in order for all my trouble regarding those newcomers. I should very much like to try my luck with assassins next, though they can be so unfortunately pricey. Sigh~ That plant monstrosity is such a thorn in my side.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Oh well, a witch has got to do what a witch has got to do!</em>
</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. All is Bright</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Wow, this story is two months old! Time flies, yowza!~<br/>Just sayin', I *looooove* reading your comments, thoughts and theories; I'm ravenous for them!   :)Z) 		(ravenous I say!)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Silent Night, Holy Night,</p><p>All is Calm, All is Bright</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Strictly speaking, she shouldn't be in here.</p><p> </p><p>Eda had told Noceda go find her pair of 'retort flasks', whatever those were, and that they would <em>probably</em> be in her room, and although her closet <em>technically</em> counted as being in her room Eda had also warned her a long time ago not to go messing with her stuff in there. And Noceda was definitely messing with stuff in here.</p><p>Of course, the thing that stuck out most of all in the crowded closet filled with every kind of tempting treasure or useless-looking garbage was complete with a written declaration that practically screamed at her to pry. The small wooden chest had a freaking <em>sign</em> on it that read, "Do Not <strike>Open</strike> Noceda." Come ooooooon, Eda, she'd been cooped up in the House for weeks now because of all the freaky shit going on and she was going totally stir-crazy. You can't put her in the room she gets to poke around in the least with no supervision and expect her to behave when it's mere paper that has the audacity to order her around.</p><p>
  <em>Just a quick peek. Maybe her flasks are in there for some reason and she forgot about the note. Yeah.</em>
</p><p>She looked behind her for any sign of someone else silently lurking in Eda's room and then turned back to the little chest eagerly. She placed a single twitching finger under the lip of the lid and lifted... but a pair eyes opened and the seam between the top and bottom halves of the chest warped into a disapproving scowl.</p><p>"Oh come onnnn..." She whined out loud. "Eda sent me up to get something and it might be in here. In...you?" The chest narrowed its eyes at her suspiciously. Hmm...</p><p>She put a finger thoughtfully to the corner of her mouth as she wondered out loud. "You know, she's suuuuper busy right now, trying to figure out what's going on with everyone's magic and all. So busy in fact that she told me to go get her really important thing even though she usually doesn't want me looking at stuff in here." The chest was looking a tiny bit unsure now. <em>Press the advantage!</em></p><p>"It would be pretty awful if I, Eda's apprentice, had to go <em>all</em> the way back downstairs and tell Eda that I couldn't get her thingy because one of her magical artifacts didn't want to open up while I was looking for it. Then she'd have to come <em>all</em> the way back up here just to get it even though she was so busy in the first place that she asked me to do it." She was leering down at the little wooden chest as it sweated nervously somehow. "I mean, I know Eda's a pretty patient gal, but wow, she has been stressed lately and you don't wanna know how quickly she flies off the handle these days, huh~"</p><p>The chest began flapping the little brass handles affixed to each side like it was telling her, "okay! shut up!" and it popped open, letting the top half swing back on its hinge and she heard the squish of eyeballs against the shelf. Noceda grinned victoriously and loomed over the chest to see what interesting contents warranted such an affront to her curious nature.</p><p>Scrolls.</p><p>Boo. Realistically, Noceda knew they could be any sort of awesome thing but she was still expecting something a bit more.. flashy perhaps?</p><p>With a bit of a sullen expression she poked at the few rolls of old parchment. Two were the typical old cotton-paper scrolls you saw everywhere, though these two had matching red wax seals depicting some sort of vague creature. Another one was a bit wider and thicker, meaning it was probably a more complex spell, and it was tied off with a green ribbon. The last scroll was dark grey and folded into an intricate origami shape. Yeah, not gonna mess with that one (she could see blurred words squiggling around on the paper's surface).</p><p>She picked out one of the two wax-sealed scrolls, the one that had a ripped seal showing that someone had opened it up at some point. If whatever it was had already been opened before, then there wouldn't be any harm looking at it, right?</p><p>Carefully, so as not to crinkle or damage the old paper, Noceda unravelled the scroll. Since she was already this deep into prying she might as well go the whole nine yards and see what juicy secrets lay within.</p><p><em>"The Nine-Lives Curse."  </em>She read out loud. Oh, so these scrolls were curses? Yikes, nope, better put it back. In her haste to roll it up, the top-most part of the scroll flopped forward and the red seal bounced against the black inking of a feline-looking creature and left a little red smudge of wax on it. The mark was small but it stuck out like a sore thumb.</p><p><em>Better be safe than sorry, </em>she thought, holding the scroll open with her left hand and placing it against the shelf so she could gently scrape at the bit of wax with the tip of her nail. It wasn't very different than getting a little bit of crayon off and there was only a bit of residual colour now. She licked a finger ever so slightly and used the moisture to rub away the last bit of red. <em>There, like it never happened!</em></p><p>The feline creature was looking at her. She blinked at it. It picked itself up languidly and stretched, looking not unlike a little animation against the off-white background of the scroll. In the time it took for her to think, <em>aww, that's kinda cute actua- </em>it crouched low and leapt off the page, leaving a burning hole where it disconnected with the paper and a matching burn on her shirt where it landed. She launched back with a pained yelp, clawing at the black smudge as it grew and etched itself into her skin. It felt like hundreds of tiny claws digging into her layer by layer until she could feel its presence not just on her skin, but in her muscles, on her bones, running through her veins...</p><p>She couldn't see it anymore under the fabric of her shirt and jacket. When had she changed clothes?</p><p>Oh right. She was in a forest. She was sad, and angry. And guilty. And confused. So many emotions; it's a miracle her head didn't pop open and spill them all over the ground.</p><p>Lilith is dead. King is missing. Eda left. She's all alone.</p><p>It was dark out. She probably shouldn't be travelling at night. But if she didn't stop, then she'd make better time, right? And she wouldn't have to think. Move, and don’t think. Stop, and maybe die.</p><p>She saw the creature before she heard him.</p><p>
  <em>"It's not your house..."</em>
</p><p>Some creepy-looking demon. There was something decidedly feral about the way he was looking at her. Also, had she met this demon before..?</p><p>
  <em>"Whoa buddy, keep your distance. I won't make trouble for you if you don't make trouble for me."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"It's.. not your ..house...!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I don't know what you're talking about. Hey! I said stay back, I'll use magic if I have to!"</em>
</p><p>How different would things have turned out if she had just run?</p><p>
  <em>"It's Not Your HOUSE."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Fuck!"</em>
</p><p>The first time had been the worst. She felt almost, perhaps indignant? Like it was unfathomable that some random deranged monster could actually be causing her such damage. It was almost unreal until the weight of his hoof caved her bones in, and then nothing was real anymore.</p><p>
  <em>"... it's.... not... it's... not..." </em>
</p><p>You know that feeling you get when you've been underwater a bit too long and you finally breach the surface and take a breath? Coming back felt like that, but a thousand times more intense.</p><p>
  <em>"not... it's... not.."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"GAHH! Holy shit what the fuck?!"</em>
</p><p>It was like waking up from the most realistic nightmare possible. Her first thought was something dumb like, 'wasn't there a huge hole in my chest a second ago?'</p><p>
  <em>"...IT'S NOT YOUR HOUSE!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"No NO oh god not again, SHIT!"</em>
</p><p>All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel. The monkey stopped to pull up his sock, Pop! goes my sternum.</p><p>
  <em>"Fffuu... I'm.. alive? This is... what? Wait, WAIT DON'T-"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"IT'S!  NOT!  YOUR!  HOUSE!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Stop killing me!"</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Noceda woke up flailing, testing Blight's reflexes with her wild swings before she realized she wasn't being attacked anymore. The witch was talking to her but the blood rushing in her ears was too loud. Her hand flew to her hair so fast she nearly cuffed herself, and her fingers felt nothing but her short, slightly damp locks. <em>Where is it?</em></p><p>A gentle but firm hand was trying to guide her face and she let it for a moment, but worried golden eyes weren't what she needed and she shoved them away. <em>Where is it? Where Is It?</em></p><p>Not on her head. Not on the covers where she lay. On the floor? A nightstand? <em>WHERE IS IT?</em></p><p>Blight was in front of her, whether on her or leaning over her she couldn't tell but she needed to get up and find it so she pushed. There was a vaguely irritated noise that may have been words but she moved away, and then suddenly a pale hand was thrusting her beanie right in Noceda's face.</p><p>She grabbed it, mesmerized for a moment by the sight of her trembling fingers disappearing into the soft folds, a fuzzy texture against her skin she knew so well. She flipped the hat around until she was looking inside it and picked out the folded up scroll. Her fingers felt numb and clumsy as she unfolded it, quickly taking in the words and images she'd looked at dozens, maybe hundreds of times. So much emotion was coursing through her right now, much of it relief. Some of it dread. She wouldn't die today, if only she could-</p><p>"..Noceda?"</p><p>She looked at Blight. She seemed so still, so steadfast. Noceda was panting and sweaty and chilled and it seemed remarkable that the witch could be so calm. A hand was reaching for her and fingers landed tentatively on her shoulder, slowly sliding along her back when they met no resistance and Noceda was drawn into an embrace. She was pretty sure she was still holding the curse scroll, but now the warmth and feel of a familiar body was more important. Blight's deep rhythmic breathing was helping ground her.</p><p>After a moment she lifted both hands and tangled her fingers with long green hair and loose sleep shirt fabric. She let her eyes drift shut and appreciated the way Blight could wrap around her, so soft, and yet still feel unmovable. She couldn't tell if she was more pulling the witch or leaning on her, although the disorientation was gradually making more sense as Blight was at the center of every jerky movement, every shudder.</p><p>The vividness of having her chest smashed open over and over again faded away and instead her cruel inner monologue took the chance to spring up. Always reminding herself how easily she could be done in, the consequences of failure, the sheer weight of pain and regret the longer she went on...</p><p>"Noceda."</p><p>
  <em>If you die, you'll never save anyone. If you give up, you won't save yourself. If you live, you'll keep facing the next horrible thing until your bad luck runs out..</em>
</p><p>"Noceda."</p><p><em>Use it. Keep living, keep torturing yourself. Or don't. You might still have some fight left in you, a last 'hurrah' before the lights go out and they </em>stay<em> out.</em></p><p>"Noceda."</p><p>She drew a shaky breath. It rattled around in her chest and made her whole body shudder when she let it back out.</p><p>"Yeah." Noceda managed to mutter. <em>I hear you Blight. I hear you.</em></p><p>It was crazy just how hard she could squeeze the green-haired witch, and not only did she fail to break under the pressure, she wouldn't even complain about it.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"Hey, have you guys put any thought into the whole 'taking on the source of the pig demons' thing yet?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Well.. I know I want to help but.."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"But..?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>".. I don't think Amity wants to. She's trying really hard to research ways for us to get home."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I see... I can't blame her. This isn't your guys' world, it makes sense you'd want to get back as soon as you can."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"This might not be where we're from, but you and Blight are our friends! And everyone here are good people! I don't have to be from Turm Isle to want to help it."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"... Wow. Honestly Luz... I'm.. well I'm thankful for you two. I think you and Amity have helped us as much as we have you this past week."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Really? You mean it?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Yeah."</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Amity had thought that she'd gotten through to Luz about what her priorities should be. They had talked yesterday while at the library and Luz had been extra eager to help find any useful sources of knowledge for them to both go through. She seemed agreeable all evening and didn't bring up anything about wanting to do missions or go after dens of vicious monsters. They researched and made notes on wilderness survival in lieu of anything useful regarding portals since none of their books were being very helpful with that. Amity was adamant that they would find something the next day; Bonesborough Library was massive.</p><p>This morning she had woken up, pleasantly surprised that Luz was raring to go even before she was, but after cleaning up and about ready to join the others downstairs for some breakfast... she could overhear the two humans talking. It wasn't like they were trying to hide their conversation, and it wasn't like Amity was eavesdropping or anything! It's just... maybe she and Luz weren't on the same page as much as she thought. Luz had been asking about helping Noceda at the clinic when she started listening in, which was fine, the sooner they had that healing glyph business figured out the better for everyone. Then they could follow Owlbert to Eda and talk with someone who actually had first-hand knowledge with portals!</p><p>Then the conversation had gone ahead and shown Amity that Luz still very much wanted to help this world. It wasn't <em>fair.</em> This place wasn't their problem! It wasn't <em>her</em> problem! She just wanted to get her and Luz back home where it was safe. Then maybe she could focus on all of the hurdles that stood between her and... her pursuit of happiness.</p><p> </p><p>Amity flipped her book page-side down on the table and glared at the title; 'Theoretical Foundations of Extreme Long-Distance Teleportations'. She wasn't even focusing on the words anymore and it annoyed her. She looked across the wide table where movement caught her eye and as she suspected, it was Luz moseying around one of the tall bookshelves. She had a couple books in her arms and was humming quietly to herself. Amity needed to talk to her or she wasn't going to get anything done.</p><p>"Hey Luz?" She kept her voice soft out of habit while in the library. The girl perked up and spun around to look at her attentively. "Can I talk to you?" Her heart rate started picking up faster as Luz nodded and walked over and around the table to take a seat next to her. She placed the two books she had with her on her lap ('Full Reference Guide for Mushrooms that Won't Leave You Turm-inal!' and 'Campery Cookery: How To Not Singe Your Eyebrows for Dummies!').</p><p>"What did you want to talk about, Amity?" Luz's expression was open and friendly, but it lacked that certain over-flowing bubbliness she always seemed to have. It put Amity on guard for some reason.</p><p>"Luz... I really hope we can find a way home soon." She peeked at the girl and tried to find a matching sentiment in her face. She found it easily.</p><p>"I do too, Amity! And we will. We're working hard to find out everything we can! And we still have Eda to ask." She was all smiles and quick to reassure her. But something about it just wasn't <em>enough.</em></p><p>"<em>Are</em> we doing everything we can?" She glanced at Luz cautiously. The girl looked confused.</p><p>"What do you mean?"</p><p>Amity's heart wouldn't seem to slow down. "You... want to stay and help. I can tell your heart isn't in this, you're distracted." If Luz argued that point she'd bring up the conversation she heard from earlier this morning. Luz had told Noceda flat out she wanted to help with the boar demons!</p><p>"I guess so. Noceda says we've already been a big help. I kinda want to keep doing that until things start getting better for the people here." Amity could feel her stomach falling. That is not what she wanted to hear. Why did the girl need to care so much about everyone else?</p><p>"But that's not your responsibility Luz. We need to get home!" She didn't mean to yell, but her throat was tightening and if she didn't her voice might have come out like a croak.</p><p>Luz was picking up on her distress and reached out to her with a tentative hand. She didn't quite connect though, almost like she was afraid of upsetting her.</p><p>"I know that!" She looked so earnest. "And we will. I just want to do what I can while we're figuring that out." Amity tried blinking rapidly, hoping that would make her eyes sting less.</p><p>"I don't think you're trying very hard." Did she say that out loud?</p><p>"I am! I'm looking all this stuff up with you. What else should I be doing?" Luz looked confused and maybe a bit helpless now.</p><p>Taking breaths didn't seem to be working how it was supposed to. "I don't know! You believe Eda is our best shot at finding a way back right? We should be trying to find her."</p><p>"I thought you wanted to check around the library?"</p><p>"I did! I do! It's just.. it feels like we're stopping somehow. I don't know." Amity looked at the book in front of her. She was almost in tears and she wished she hadn't called Luz over.</p><p>Amity shivered as Luz gently slid her chair up against hers and wrapped warm arms around her shoulders. Luz could probably feel her shuddering. It felt nice to be held but...</p><p>One of Luz's arms shifted. The girl's right hand was hovering in front of her face. Then Luz spoke in a soft voice with a strange tone, while her fingers moved in time with her words.</p><p>"Hey Amity." The hand tipped towards her and the longest finger poked her on the shoulder ever so lightly. It almost resembled some long-necked creature with a beak. Luz spoke again, her thumb snapping away from the rest of her fingers making it seem like her hand was talking. "Don't give up. You and Luz are going to do great!"</p><p>Luz was making her hand into a puppet to speak to Amity. Somehow the silliness of the situation felt like a blanket being pulled around her racing heart and churning thoughts. She glanced at Luz's face, but her brown eyes were focusing on her hand-creature quite determinedly.</p><p>"Everything is going to be fine, me and Luz are here for you! Let's keep getting ready to find Eda, okay? Owlbert knows the way, we'll find her. We'll have you home really soon!"</p><p>Amity could feel her heartbeat slowing down. She looked from the hand-creature in front of her face to Luz's other hand on her shoulder. The pinkie with the slightly scratched up coat of black laminate stuck out to her. Then something about the words stuck out even more.</p><p>"And you.. right?" She was staring at that single laminated nail. Three heartbeats. Four more. She shoved Luz's raised hand away from in front of her and captured those uncertain brown eyes with her own.</p><p>"We're both going home, right?"</p><p>Luz reluctantly pulled away from her but kept one hand on her shoulder. "Well, yeah... I just, maybe kinda want to stay a little longer. You can tell Eda I'm alright and if you want to keep helping out you can do it from our world, I'll stay here and help from this side!"</p><p>She wanted Amity to go back without her?</p><p>Amity slid her chair back with a harsh scrape of wood on ceramic tile and if she thought her heart had been beating fast before, it was nothing compared to now. She was standing over Luz, the girl looking up at her with clear worry on her face.</p><p>"No! Luz I'm not just going to leave you here! This place is awful!" She couldn't stay here alone, why would she want to stay?</p><p>"It's not completely awful! There's good things here too. Haven't we-"</p><p>Amity shook her head. This wasn't fair! "Don't you want to go home? Don't you want to be safe?" <em>Don't you want to come back with me?</em></p><p>Luz was standing now as well, and trying to reach out and connect with her, but Amity avoided her like the skin contact would burn if they did.</p><p>"Of course I do! But I want to make this place safe too, if I can. It's what I want to do." She was sad about Amity avoiding her touch, that much was obvious from the pain beginning to manifest in her eyes. But she looked determined as well.</p><p>"Even if it's dangerous... and you might get hurt?" Amity asked in a quiet voice. <em>Why do you need to be a hero?</em></p><p>Luz was quiet for a moment. Then she nodded. She looked guilty, but also... resolute.</p><p>Amity was almost whispering now. "Even if I get hurt?"</p><p>The question seemed to blind-side the poor girl and she scrambled to answer. "No! That's why I want to find a way back, I want you to be safe Amity." Luz reached out for her shoulders again but Amity had to back away, she couldn't be touched right now. She just couldn't.</p><p>"Oh you don't get it!" Now she was crying. When had that started?</p><p>
  <em>Am I just another person for her to save? I thought I meant more than that to her!</em>
</p><p>"Wait, what.. Amity!"</p><p>"I need some space Luz."</p><p>"Amity!"</p><p>"Don't follow me!"</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Miserable.</p><p>Misery. Miserabled. Miserabling. Miseried. Miserith.</p><p> </p><p>Luz wanted to rub at her eyes again but that would just make them more red.</p><p>She hadn't actually <em>cried</em>, but she was close to it. The annoying, drawn-out scraping noise that the bottom of her shoes made against the ground as she walked reminded her of when she'd drag her feet back in the human realm and her mom would say, "Mija pick up your feet please."</p><p>It wasn't like Luz to mope around. But Amity had looked so upset! Everything was fine one moment and the next thing she knew Amity was in tears and running away.</p><p>It wasn't fair. Luz just wanted to help, was that really so bad?</p><p>She was closing in on the house that had been lent to them for their stay here in Bonesborough. Her plodding walk from the library back to their little base of operations seemed to take a long time, and yet none at all. Thoughts about how Amity had reacted, the things she'd said, were all weighing Luz down like iron necklaces. When she started making her way up to the front door of their safe house, her heart leapt into her throat for a moment when she thought it was Amity sitting on the wide steps of the front porch.</p><p>Blight looked up at her from the witch's bag in her lap and her attempts to sew the strap back together. Luz could tell from the thinness of her lips that she was mildly frustrated, and honestly she <em>was</em> making a bit of a mess of her bag despite trying to repair it.</p><p>"Can I sit with you?" Luz asked cautiously, not wanting to bother the older witch. She waved her hand with the needle and thread in wordless permission and so Luz perched on the other side of the stair. There were only two steps so her feet were flat on the ground and she wrapped her arms around her knees while she tried to not look like she was watching Blight's handiwork.</p><p>They were both quiet for a while. Luz listened to the witch while she inexpertly grappled with her bag and although she wanted to talk and maybe get some advice on how to make up with Amity, she didn't know how to start.</p><p>Blight let out a puff of irritation. She rolled her head and pinned Luz with a perceptive eye that made Luz's heart tick somewhat quicker and had her straightening up unconsciously with the sudden attention.</p><p>"Tell you what. You take a stab at this thing and in return you can tell me what's eating you." She said and indicated her poor witch's bag. Luz perked up with a little smile and she shifted a bit closer to the older teen, carefully taking the needle and its attached thread as well as the bag. Blight picked up the rest of the sewing kit Luz hadn't seen before and put it between them so she could reach it.</p><p>"Where'd this come from?" Luz asked, pointing at the kit and then started to undo the new stitching. She was thankful to have a task for her hands. Her head was feeling pretty numb.</p><p>"Bought it at the market. Noceda used to have one and I thought it'd be cheaper to get more sewing stuff than pay someone to fix it." Blight perched her chin in her palm and her elbow on a knee and looked away looking just a bit bashful. Luz smiled to herself and focused on re-aligning the strap before she started in with the needle.</p><p>"So what's up? You look like a kicked puppy and itty-bitty-'mity is nowhere in sight. Something happen?"</p><p>Luz's expression melted. The image of Amity speed-walking away was over-lapped with what she was doing and she had to blink rapidly to bring the present back into focus.</p><p>"I..." She started, but stopped and swallowed down her words for a short while. The witch didn't say anything and instead settled into a lounging position that made it clear she wasn't intending on getting up any time soon.</p><p>Luz took a few solid breaths, then tried again. "I think I made Amity mad at me. I don't really know what to do about it."</p><p>An amused sound left the witch and Luz shot her a disappointed look. If Blight noticed she wasn't fazed by it at all, though she did continue speaking after a moment.</p><p>"You and Amity had a quarrel? That doesn't sound like you two at all." There was a light but not well-hidden sarcastic lilt to her voice that Luz found just a <em>teeny</em> bit chafing.</p><p>"You're right, it doesn't." Luz wasn't sulking. She wasn't. "We got off to a bit of a shaky start but we don't fight or have arguments anymore." She nodded, a determined lip stuck out. "We have great communication."</p><p>Luz didn't hear anything in response so she went back to her stitching. With each careful motion she took with the needle, the more she dwelled on her last words. Blight didn't have to respond when the question eventually slunk through her mind all on its own.</p><p>
  <em>Do you have good communication though? 'Cause something got lost in translation recently.</em>
</p><p>She stopped her sewing and stared at the thread that wove in and out of the tough material the bag was made of. There were bits of glue left over from the duct tape she'd used earlier to hold the strap together, adding to the overall dingy appearance of the artifact in her hands.</p><p>"Amity is... upset that I want to stay and help out around here. I think she's worried that something bad is going to happen to us."</p><p>"It's really only a matter of time, Luz." That made her look over at Blight, shock evident on her face. "What do you mean?" She asked, or more like squawked.</p><p>The witch lazily draped her head to the side to pin those intense eyes on her again. The shadow of the house was just barely covering her face so that the late morning sun wasn't forcing her to squint or anything.</p><p>"Life hurts you. It's just how the world works. Hanging around here just seems to me like you're begging for punishment. If the stakes are easier to deal with in your guys' world then no wonder she wants to get back as soon as possible."</p><p>Luz wasn't sure what stung more; Blight's dismal outlook on life or the casual way she dismissed Luz's ambition to help. Life wasn't a road of pain waiting to be felt, there were always going to be downs, but the ups made everything worth it!</p><p>"I believe that we can achieve anything we want if we work together." She replied with a resolute nod. "I understand that Amity is afraid of this place, but I don't want to let my fear stop me from doing the things I want to do." She didn't care if that made her sound naive or stubborn. This is how she has always been.</p><p>"So you won't help her get back home?" Blight asked and Luz looked at her sharply.</p><p>"Of course I will!" The question was almost offensive though she didn't think Blight meant it to be.</p><p>"Did you tell her that?" Blight raised an eyebrow at her, and Luz answered immediately, "I did. And then she got upset when I said I might not be going back at the same time she does."</p><p>"Because she's afraid you'll get hurt while she's safe at home?"</p><p>"Yeah. I guess."</p><p>"And you're not afraid that you'll get hurt while you're out here saving the Isle."</p><p>"I... well I'll do my best to overcome any challenges..."</p><p>"But you don't think you can get hurt."</p><p>"I guess I can... though I hope I won't." Luz didn't like how unsure she sounded.</p><p>"Say you do get hurt. Let's pretend for a moment that the odds aren't stacked horribly against you. And maybe Amity finds out about it later. How do you think she's going to feel getting that news in her bunny slippers all snuggly at home?" The mental image of Amity in bunny slippers was <em>almost </em>enough to throw Luz off track but not quite enough. She'd definitely draw the image later though.</p><p>Luz's shoulders slumped forward. "I think... she'd be really sad. And probably mad. At herself even more than me."</p><p>This was so confusing. Luz wanted to try and save people. And she also cared about Amity, like a <em>lot</em>. But slowing down to help out around here frightened Amity. Was she not allowed to have both?</p><p>Luz wasn't sure if she said any of that out loud, because Blight stated in a rather matter-of-fact sort of way, "It really boils down to what you're willing to risk." She watched the witch carefully while she continued speaking.</p><p>"Is your happiness, and hers, worth possibly losing to try and make a difference for other people?"</p><p>Luz didn't know how to answer that. She stared at the side of Blight's head like an answer would pop out of her ear and present itself as indisputable moral law.</p><p>Her eyes drifted back to the bag in her hand. The stitching was almost done. It wasn't nearly as nice as her mom's would have been. It would have stuck out a lot more if the bag hadn't been so roughed up. Its dingy appearance clashed with the witch who owned it, Luz thought, since Blight tried to look and dress nicely even though she had to travel on foot and battle monsters and stuff. But this bag was too important, too difficult to replace, so she kept it even though it was getting kind of ratty.</p><p>A thought struck her. Maybe she was more important to Amity than she thought. If Amity had wanted to stay in a dangerous place alone, Luz wouldn't want that to happen, she wouldn't <em>let </em>it happen! She would feel awful if something happened to Amity. She might not be able to live the same way. Did Amity feel like that about her?</p><p>"Blight... can I ask you something?"</p><p>"Sure, go ahead." The witch replied, a bit of suspicion in her voice.</p><p>Luz fumbled with her words now that they'd formed in her head and she thought that perhaps her face was heating up a bit. Finally she worked up the courage and asked her question.</p><p>"Do you love Noceda?"</p><p>Blight was leaning back on her elbows but still managed to throw her shoulders back and raise her palms to the sky like she'd find all the answers there. "Why do you kids keep asking me this?"</p><p>Luz stared at the older teen with her mouth hanging open, absorbing the way Blight was blushing and refusing to make eye contact with her. <em>She... maybe does? Maybe that means... Amity... and me...?</em></p><p>Adrenaline and terror and exhilaration flooded Luz in equal measure and she quickly finished up the last few stitches for the strap and bit off the thread once she secured it from unravelling. Blight was watching her and flinched when Luz yanked on the strap, hard, and it didn't budge. She placed the bag down and left the kit for the witch to put away, shooting up to her feet and drawing in a huge stabilizing breath.</p><p>She whipped her head to look down at the other teen, who was observing her with some surprise and just a bit of caution. Luz noticed the little whistle hanging from its necklace that she knew was for calling the messenger demon Gus had lent them. She asked for it and Blight pulled it off and handed it to her with a slightly bewildered look, and perhaps with a bit of exasperation, like she was used to whirlwind conclusion-jumping from the people she chatted with most often. All things considered... she probably was.</p><p>Luz grinned and started to walk backwards, picking up the pace as she called out, "Thanks for talking with me Blight. I'm going to go find Amity now!"</p><p>She sprinted away from the house and into the street, blowing the whistle to summon their temporary familiar. She may not always know what the right thing to do was, and she may not have all the answers... but Luz suddenly got the feeling that she'd been over-looking some very important questions.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>To her surprise, Noceda spotted a flash of familiar mint-green among the shoppers bustling about in the market, but in a much lower volume than she was used to.</p><p>"Amity?" She asked cautiously as she pulled up beside the young witch. Amity flinched like her name had been yelled, then she turned and looked up at Noceda timidly. She couldn't see Luz anywhere nearby and something seemed off about Amity's demeanour.</p><p>"You alright kid?" Now the witchling looked like she was misting up, which wrenched something deep inside Noceda. She reached out and lay her fingers on Amity's shoulder. She didn't pull away and Noceda guided her out of the foot traffic and onto a bench nearby. It took a few moments before the green-haired witch finally felt like speaking.</p><p>"Luz and I... kind of had a fight."</p><p>Noceda's brows went high. The two were damn near inseparable, so that was kind of shocking in and of itself.</p><p>"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked gently. Amity glanced in her direction but didn't make full eye contact. Then she seemed to watch the moderate hustle and bustle around them with some unease. Then she shook her head slowly. Noceda couldn't help feeling some disappointment, but she wasn't going to force the kid to speak.</p><p>"Hey, if you're hungry we can go get some early lunch. Or if you just feel like wandering around and clearing your head feel free to tag along with me. I'm on the hunt for certain strange human-y things." Noceda wiggled her fingers like she was talking about something spooky and although she didn't get much of a smile or anything, Amity did look slightly less down-trodden than a moment ago.</p><p>"What kind of human things?" She asked softly.</p><p>"Weeeeeell, you see last night I had an epiphany," Noceda started, although she'd leave out the part where her epiphany included sneaking into Amity and Luz's room or having a minor emotional crisis while there. "The first glyph I ever discovered was the light glyph, and I found it after taking a video of Eda casting her light spell. Long story short, I could pause the video and see the glyph, which let me copy it and boom, magic!" She clapped her hands for emphasis, and chuckled out a little apology when it made Amity wince slightly.</p><p>"What does that have to do with human things?" She asked, finally looking Noceda in the eyes, which was nice. Noceda leaned in conspiratorially and held her hand up like she was sharing a secret. Amity blinked a few times but leaned in almost by instinct and tilted an ear closer.</p><p>"I'm looking for any kind of camera, or video recorder, or something that can charge a phone. Even any kind of battery. I'm gonna record an advanced healing spell and discover the glyph that way!" She grinned gleefully.</p><p>Amity furrowed her brows slightly, in confusion. "Why are we whispering about it though?"</p><p>Noceda whipped her head to and fro, like she was on the look-out for saboteurs. Amity wasn't exactly playing along, but she didn't look as upset anymore, ha!</p><p>"We're in a marketplace. If word gets out that I'm looking for something specific, the price is bound to go up by the time I find it. So I'm being ninja-discreet."</p><p>The young witch cocked an eyebrow at her and spoke in a normal volume now. "And how's that working for you?"</p><p><em>Spoilsport</em>. Noceda leaned on to the back of the bench and sighed. She'd been through a lot of stalls by now and most of them didn't have anything even remotely human in origin. She'd also been keeping an eye out for a baseball bat or other sturdy bludgeoning weapon at the same time.</p><p>"Not great, honestly. Human junk isn't really in ample supply at the best of times and my backup guess is to try and find some kind of power source that I could try charging Luz's phone with."</p><p>There was the option of charging a phone using one of Eda's improvised gadgets back at the Owl House, but it would be a poorly-conceived option at best to try and retrieve it assuming the house was even still there. <em>Maybe Viney could figure out a way to convert magical energy from an artifact into electricity and somehow not fry the phone in the process?</em></p><p>"Does it have to be a human device that records the spell?" Amity asked. Noceda stared at her blankly, so she primly moved her witch’s bag onto her lap and opened it, rooting around for a moment. While her arm was half-swallowed up by the artifact, Owlbert poked his head out the top, swivelled to look around curiously, and then disappeared again with a non-committal coo. It was distractingly adorable, but then the rest of Amity's arm reappeared with her scrollphone in hand.</p><p>"The magic that lets our scrolls communicate to each other doesn't seem to be working here but this can still take photos and videos."</p><p>To really drive her point home, the green-haired witch held the scroll up in between them for a moment, and then flipped it around and swiped a finger along the softly glowing front. Noceda could see a short playback of her own stupefied expression. She immediately grasped Amity's hand not holding her scrollphone and squeezed it firmly.</p><p>"Amity you're a genius!" She practically yelled, startling the poor girl further. She stood up straight with a hand plastered to the side of her head like she could physically hold back having her mind blown. <em>How did she miss that?</em></p><p>Her own cellphone had been damaged beyond repair years ago and if Blight still had her scroll then she hadn't used it in forever! Noceda completely forgot they even existed! And these things were artifacts, there was probably loads of them stashed away for draining! She clapped her hands once in excitement, feeling suddenly like certain blocks were finally falling into line for her.</p><p>She looked back down at the young witch who looked a bit dazed and thoughtful. Noceda couldn't help beaming at her, and that's the expression Amity saw when she looked up to meet her eyes. In return, the young witch seemed.. well conflicted,  but the subtle quirk of her lips looked like she was also begrudgingly accepting some realization or other.</p><p>Quite abruptly, her attention and Amity's was captured by the eyeball-headed messenger demon who touched down on her shoulder. It's tinny voice said, <em>"Gus Porter is close by and would like to open communications with 'Luz Noceda'. Accept the call?"</em></p><p>"Uh, sure, go ahead?" She shrugged and sent a questioning look at Amity since this was a new feature she hadn't seen yet, although the witch didn't seem surprised at all. The messenger demon growled in little bursts until Gus' voice started talking from its chest.</p><p>
  <em>"Hey, Noceda that you?"</em>
</p><p>"Hey, yeah it's me. What's up, you got some free time or something?" Noceda asked with a big smile, returning to the high from her and Amity's discovery and more than happy to catch up with Gus if he had some time. Amity seemed to feel like she needed to give her some distance, but didn't go far while Noceda connected with her friend.</p><p><em>"Yeah, I'm grabbing lunch in the market. You close by?"</em> Gus' tinny voice asked eagerly.</p><p>"I'm in the market too, so I must be. Wanna grab lunch together? You and me, and I've got Amity here. Like, little Amity not Blight." She said that last part a bit more quietly, hoping the young witch wouldn't be offended or anything if she overheard. Thankfully she seemed to be distracted by something in the alleyway between a sparsely-stocked snack shack and a closed-down potions stall.</p><p>
  <em>"Yeah sounds great! I'm heading for Raya's, they're new in town and have amazing jerky buns. They're shaped like dragons! My treat?"</em>
</p><p>Noceda grinned at his enthusiasm and felt like between the two of them they might overload some positivity quota pretty soon. "Awesome, meet you there. But it's going to be <em>my</em> treat, and I've got some power glyphs if you want them for our tab."</p><p>
  <em>"Ooh, hoo.. I won't say no to power glyphs, but are you sure?"</em>
</p><p>"Yep, absolutely. See you in a bit!" Getting to chat and settle up with Gus and maybe help Amity too if she felt like talking after lunch all in one shot? <em>Amazing.</em></p><p>The messenger demon hopped off her shoulder and fluttered around, awaiting instructions. What was it Blight had said before?</p><p>"Uhh, okay so 'guide to sender'? Or just guide me to Gus, the guy I was just talking to. That work?" She asked up at the bird-like critter who chattered back and started taking off. She jolted, hoping not to lose sight of it and didn't see Amity so she called out for her. The witch stumbled out from the alleyway and stood stiffly, kicking off something icky-looking from her shoe. She looked a bit startled.</p><p>"You okay back here?" Noceda asked with a lifted eyebrow, closing the distance and peeking into the alleyway to see what she might have gotten up to.</p><p><em>Eew. </em>Noceda didn't see the appeal, there were just bins and piles of junk back there. Amity's cheeks were a bit red, but she decided not to pester the girl about it.</p><p>"Hey so I hope you don't mind if Gus joins us for lunch? We've been meaning to catch up, and-"</p><p>"That's fine." Amity cut in, looking pleasantly stoic now. The messenger demon made its presence known again with a fly-by right between them and so the two of them followed the busy little creature.</p><p>"I don't know about you Amity, but I'm <em>starving</em>. I kinda didn't have breakfast." Noceda chattered idly as they weaved through the other market-goers. The young witch didn't reply while she carefully avoided the other people. The messenger demon flitting ahead of them kept dipping in and out of sight but it wasn't long before she could see Gus waving at them from in front of a stall decorated with lots of greenery and exotic-looking decorations. Pretty soon she'd set them all up with awesome-looking meat buns that, like Gus had described them, were molded to look like long snakey critters with legs and had different kinds of dried fillings inside. They smelled <em>amazing</em>.</p><p>Since there weren't any free benches nearby, they ended up sitting on a platform with an only sort-of beat up statue at its centre. Noceda sat next to Gus on one side and Amity sat a few places away, observing something far off and idly poking at her pastry. Noceda reached into her jacket's inner breast pocket and pulled out a few glyphs, handing them to Gus who took them with some reverence. He met her eyes and asked, "You're sure?" again, to which she smirked and nodded.</p><p>"Don't worry about it, we've been picking up stuff around here under your name like you said to. Thanks Gus." She smiled warmly at the tall witch. A little shadow of something played across his features for a moment and he hesitated taking a bite of his lunch. When he looked back at her he was scratching at the back of his neck and Noceda thought she could possibly identify... guilt?</p><p>"Hey Noceda... Uhm. I gotta come clean man."</p><p>"What's up Gus?" She really wanted to start on her lunch but she didn't want the other teen to think she wasn't giving him her full attention.</p><p>"Well... I've been thinking and, I feel like I owe you and Blight an apology. I think maybe I kinda led Blight into that match the other day as a way to, I dunno, get back at you or something." He peeked at her sheepishly and continued with the words sort of tumbling out of his mouth like he'd been meaning to say them for a while. "It's just that I really missed you. Willow really missed you. And we really could have used your help." His jaw seemed to be trying to work around too many thoughts and Noceda could see that eye contact was becoming difficult for him.</p><p>"Gus, I.."</p><p>"Let me finish, 'kay?, He looked so earnest and he stumbled to get the next sentence out so Noceda clammed up and let him keep going.</p><p>"It's just that you come back here looking well and happy, and you've got Blight of all people buddied-up to you and your friends from... an alternate dimension..." He squinted at the unusual description but then shook his head and finally managed to turn his sincere gaze on her. "And I was jealous. I think I just wanted to show you that I'm a good reason to stick around and I took it out on Blight. I don't know why you left or what you've been up to for the past year, but.. I was being stupid. And I definitely wasn't acting like a good friend-"</p><p>His eyes were starting to well up and that's where Noceda felt she needed to stop him. Without bothering to stand she grabbed the taller witch up in a hug and after a moment, he slowly shifted how he was sitting to return it.</p><p>"Sorry for interrupting you Gus. But I hear you, and I get it." She pulled away so she could look at him properly. It was still bizarre, looking <em>up</em> into those soulful, kind eyes instead of down like she used to years ago. Her friend used to be so scrawny. Even though he'd gotten so much bigger, he was still her sensitive little Gus inside.</p><p>"Listen, I left because I was angry. Not at you, or anyone here, I was angry with myself. And I ran away instead of sorting through my feelings, and I'm sorry I left you and Willow to face all this shit alone."</p><p>He looked distinctly sad, but he didn't pull away and he listened to her without any hint of accusation in his eyes. She hadn't noticed before, but his pupils weren't actually round anymore. They both looked like a many-pointed star. Noceda felt a wave of guilt wash over her. She hadn't even asked him what sort of trouble his magic use had been giving him.</p><p>She took a steadying breath and then continued. "I'm not gonna say I wish I hadn't done it," she watched him carefully because she meant it but didn't want him to take it the wrong way. "I ended up finding Blight when she needed me and I really care about her. I mean, I care about you and Willow too of course," her cheeks heated with awkward embarrassment but she pressed on, "but she really needed me... and I know now that I really needed her too."</p><p>Noceda wondered for a second how vulnerable her face must be for Gus to look at her like that, like he was afraid that she'd crumple if he said something even a tiny bit too harsh.</p><p>"However, while I was figuring shit out I realized that I had to come back." She took a deep breath to keep her voice even. "And what you've help build here is incredible and I don't know if I deserve to just pound on your door and want to be part of the club again but, I'm here now and I wanna help. If... you know. You'll let me." Goddammit, she was definitely misting up now too. Now they both looked like emotional saps.</p><p>Gus pursed his lips, looking away and seeming to compose himself with the efficiency and discipline of a young man who had far too much riding on his shoulders. When he turned back to her, there was far less hurt in his eyes and he was nodding. He put the hand not squeezing his poor dragon pastry on her shoulder and spoke with all the sincerity she had come to cherish him for.</p><p>"You'll always have a place here Noceda. And I've got your back if anyone says otherwise."</p><p>She managed to hold it in for a few seconds longer, but then she had to swipe at her eyes so the moisture didn't run down her cheeks. She reached out and pulled him in for another meaningful embrace, not entirely sure if she was chuckling or perhaps sobbing a bit.</p><p>"Thank you Gus." They broke apart and she hoped he could really feel the gratitude in her smile and in the little squeeze she gave his shoulder. "You're really are a good friend, know that?"</p><p>He surreptitiously dried his own misty eyes and grinned playfully,  "Yeah, I am pretty great." Noceda returned the grin and nudged him with her elbow. He glanced at her shyly, poking his fingers together like he used to do when he was happy but didn't want to overwhelm anyone with it. "I'm really glad you're back."</p><p>Noceda gave his shoulder another firm pat which made him smile wider. "Me too Gus. You know, I missed you a lot as well."</p><p>He hesitated for a second before asking, "You think you'll be staying a while?"</p><p>He was so honest. Not always in the conventional way, but in the ways that really mattered. They had that in common.</p><p>"Yeah. I'm gonna help out with some stuff here," Noceda kind of forgot about Amity and glanced behind her to see the green-haired witch still looking a bit spaced out. She hadn't touched her meat bun, but then again neither had Noceda or Gus. "Though I might be taking off for a bit after. We think we've got a way to find Eda, and you know I have to find her if she's out there. She could also be Luz and Amity's best shot at getting home." Gus was watching her, a hint of guarded resignation in his eyes but still accepting.</p><p>"I'll come back. You know I will." She assured him. She assured herself. He definitely perked up with the declaration.</p><p>Their messenger demon swooped around the statue and landed on the corner of the platform between Noceda and Amity. It hopped around agitatedly and after a few seconds she could hear Luz's voice calling out for them. It fluttered off in the direction Luz was coming from and then immediately started making its way back, evidently guiding her to them. Noceda hadn't even noticed the little demon taking off to go find the younger teen in the first place.</p><p>"Hey, over here!" Gus stood up and waved his arms. His enthusiastic display was more than enough to catch Luz's attention and she darted over to them at once with Blight's little messenger-whistle dangling from her hand by its string. Noceda blanched a bit and glanced at Amity, knowing full well that the young witch might not be ready to talk to Luz yet if she was still trying to get her thoughts in order after their supposed argument. Oddly, she didn't look like she was nervous at the girl's approach. She didn't look overly welcoming, either.</p><p>"Hey, you want one of these meat buns? They're awesome." Gus greeted Luz and finally took a bite of his lunch. Noceda's stomach yowled at her to follow suit, but she was more interested in how the two younger teens would interact.</p><p>"Thanks Gus, I'll probably try one." She smiled at him and then turned her full attention to Amity who was standing now and facing her. She was holding her untouched food in one hand and Luz spared it the merest of glances before she locked eyes with Amity and they stood less than two feet apart. Her fingers were straining restlessly with the string of her whistle while she stared at Amity with more intensity than Noceda would have expected from her.</p><p>Luz inched in closer, and Noceda raised an interested eyebrow at the unusual exchange which only got weirder as a blush popped up on Amity's cheeks like someone had flicked on a little light switch. This made Luz's eyes narrow and a hand drifted up to hold her own chin for a moment. Then she raised the hand high over Amity's head and suddenly swung down hard, yelling, "Luz chop!"</p><p>The young witch's expression was far more stunned than it was hurt, for all of the second and a half it was there before she poofed into a cloud and dispersed with the air currents. Her dragon pastry fell and bounced along the ground.</p><p>"Ha! I knew it!" Luz cheered, spinning and facing Gus with a sly smirk. "Congratulations on your illusion's realism, but you're going to have to do better than that to fool me!" She waggled a finger at him, and he looked at Noceda to exchange confused looks. Luz's grin fell as their silence dragged on, and Noceda was distantly aware of letting go of her own untouched pastry as her arms numbed with an icy crawling feeling.</p><p>"Where's Amity?" Luz asked in a small voice, likely unsettled by her increasingly stricken expression.</p><p>"Oh fuck me." Noceda gasped.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Silent Night, Holy Night,</p><p>All is Calm, <strike>All is Blight</strike></p><p>        Before the storm...</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Two-Bite Brownie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Mini chappie! :D </p><p>Thanks for comments and kudos all, *it*runs*in*my*veins*and*gives*me*life*. </p><p>Tippity-tapping up the next chapter, see ya'all in a bit~</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>"Thanks for talking with me Blight. I'm going to go find Amity now!"</p><p> </p><p>Left rather stunned, Blight watched little Luz fly down the road and use the whistle to call the messenger demon they all shared.</p><p>The last couple minutes were like a whirlwind. One second little Luz was griping about upsetting Amity, the next second asking her about capital-L <em>Love</em>, then she was sewing at an unfairly masterful pace and <em>then</em> she was gone.</p><p>Blight turned away from the middle-space she'd been staring into and looked at the abandoned sewing kit and her fixed witch's bag lying on the deck. She shook her head to help clear some of the mental fog and gathered up the items to bring inside.</p><p>While she wandered down stairs to the rec room she appraised little Luz's work on her bag's strap. The stitching was noticeable if you were looking for it, but considering how roughed up her bag was after being travelled with for a couple years, it kinda blended in. A few increasingly insistent tugs on the strap later and she felt relatively assured it would hold up as well as it had been at least. She ran a washcloth under the faucet for a moment and gently wiped the bag off, cleaning it of some of the dirt it had accumulated since she'd last attended to it.</p><p>
  <em>"Do you love Noceda?"</em>
</p><p>Blight could feel her cheeks heating up. She spun around and walked out of the bathroom stiffly, tossing her bag on the bed and crossed her arms, scanning the room. A few shirts, pairs of pants and other clothing items were tossed around the room haphazardly. This was their third morning in Bonesborough and they hadn't bothered to do laundry in a civilized manner despite having the chance. The owl place had been a disaster upon leaving, but while staying there they enjoyed having actual facilities and getting to use a real laundry box. It was <em>so</em> much nicer than soaking everything with a springwater glyph. The clothes came out properly cleaned, nice-smelling, and nothing got left behind in the process. (She was still sore about getting chased away from one of her favourite outfits last month when she and Noceda had hung out some things to dry on a tree and a centibear burst out of freaking nowhere.)</p><p>
  <em>What is the difference between like and love anyways?</em>
</p><p>With a frustrated little groan she scooped up a basket that would serve just fine as a laundry bin and she paced around the room picking up her and Noceda's discarded clothing.</p><p>"<em>Something-witch girlfriend. Beloved. 'Wild tempest'."</em></p><p>She levelled a flat glare at some random artifact across the room. Evidently her silly little brain wasn't going to shut up with the feelie-feels right now. Dumb fluttery tingles were lancing through her tummy and she felt childish. They had been travelling together for half a year or something. They slept together. Bled together. Drove each other crazy. The last few weeks have been especially... weird. Feelings-weird. And since little Luz and Amity tumbled in to their lives what, eight, nine days ago? Extra helping of feelings-weird.</p><p>She sat on the bed and yanked her witch's bag over moodily. One shelf in there held clothes that she had worn enough times or were otherwise soiled and not fit to wear until washed again and she pulled them out. Her basket of dirty laundry started filling up quickly.</p><p>It wasn't like she was embarrassed. She and Noceda shared a very strong bond and she was thankful for it. She was proud of it. They just... didn't really talk about it a whole lot. Not in so many words. And who would they talk to about it anyways? It wasn't until recently that they'd even been around other sane people in so long. Having their relationship poked and prodded by their annoyingly curious younger selves was presenting Blight with thoughts she wasn't completely ready to confront yet. Then again... now wasn't the <em>worst </em>time to think about it. Maybe.</p><p>She rifled through Noceda's backpack and pulled out her jumbled ball of clothes that she somehow managed to fit in there along with all of her other stuff. Anything that smelled worn she threw in the basket; She was less selective than the last time she'd bothered to do it.</p><p>
  <em>"What are you doing in my bag?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I'm washing some of my stuff so I thought I'd do the worst of yours. Maybe you'll stop acting like I think you're a trash slug for a few nights."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I can't just throw away a decade of self-consciousness, Blight. I worked hard for those hang-ups. You know what being extra-super enthusiastic in gym class and cheerleader tryouts gets you? Laughed at, that's what."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Maybe don't mash your dirty clothes and your clean clothes together. Might do wonders for your self-esteem if you can tell the difference."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>*unintelligible muttering*</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"In a language and volume I can understand, please."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I said you're acting like a house-wife. Are you my blushing wifey Blight?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Sh-shut up! Fine, do your own washing. Or don't, I don't care. Just stop being all weird about yourself. Your musk doesn't bother me."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Eugh... don't call it that. Makes me feel gross."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"So I'm gross for having musk too then?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"... well saying it about you is kinda hot-"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"That's a double-standard you dumb human!"</em>
</p><p>Great, her face was burning and her stomach doing flip-flops again. She pushed the dingy backpack away like it had personally insulted her and then put the full basket of dirty clothes back on the shelf in her newly-stitched witch's bag. Gus had told her during their demon-slaying yesterday that one of the three safe-houses had a laundry box, and since it wasn't this one she'd just have to snoop around the other two until she found it.</p><p>
  <em>"Would we share domestic bliss?"</em>
</p><p>She clapped her hands over her face. <em>That</em> had been particularly bad. She was so thankful no one was around right now to see her so flustered. Noceda had been <em>especially</em> mushy lately. Maybe her human was often like that and she just didn't notice? Regardless, her being mushy was making Blight mushy and she didn't know how to feel about that. The more they let themselves relax the higher chance that something was going to go horribly wrong. Any mistake they made on their stupid quests to help others could be their last.</p><p>At least younger Amity had enough sense to want to stay out of the fire. But still the kid worried and wrung her hands over little Luz who shared Noceda's reckless heroic ideals. It was dangerous for both of them. It could get them killed someday.</p><p>But how was that any different than her and Noceda? Amity had asked her if she would leave Bonesborough should Noceda choose to and she knew what the reflexive answer to that was. She knew what the long, staring-at-the-ceiling-in-the-tiny-hours-of-the-morning answer was. Does that make her dangerously reckless as well, to want to stay with Noceda regardless of the risks her motivations pose? Maybe.. Probably? Is that what separates <em>like</em> from <em>love</em>? Would it being love forgive how ridiculous it was?<br/><br/></p><p>She heard the door open upstairs and at least two pairs of footsteps enter the house. Her heart picked up an almost frenzied rhythm, she couldn't face Noceda right now! She ran her fingers over her cheeks lightly and yep, as she expected, her face was quite warm.</p><p>"Hey Blight, we need you!" Little Luz's voice called out. She didn't sound very happy which caught her attention right away. Something was wrong.</p><p>She left her bag on the bed and headed for the stairs. Upon reaching the top she could see little Luz glance at her with worry and Noceda walking into the living room with an unconscious Amity in her arms!</p><p>She rushed in after them while little Luz hovered nearby and Noceda set the young witch out on the couch, careful to avoid the huge vase so close to the other end.</p><p>"What happened to her?" Blight pushed in beside Noceda, taking in Amity's pinched look. Her hands were shaking and twitching.</p><p>"We were hoping you could tell us? Is she under a spell or something magical?" Little Luz asked from her place by the arm of the couch, leaning on it to hover so she was close. Blight glanced at Noceda, who was determinedly focusing on Amity's face. "Did you find her like this?"</p><p>"Yeah!" Little Luz squeaked, "Is she okay?"</p><p>Blight absorbed the young human's nervous expression and jitteriness for all of a couple seconds before she placed her hands on Amity to see if she could sense any magic affecting her. Her left hand drifted up to the younger witch's forehead; she could feel something binding her.</p><p>"I think she's under a sleep spell." Blight opened her eyes. Judging from how agitated Amity was even with the spell's influence, she was fighting it pretty hard. Noceda placed a heavy hand on her shoulder and had her eyes closed, breathing in deeply like she was trying to calm herself. Blight could feel her shivering and clenching her fingers. She hadn't said anything yet, which worried Blight even more. <em>Danger.</em></p><p>"Can you make it go away?"</p><p>Little Luz was weaving her way around the mess of artifacts so that she could stand behind the couch. She sounded so helpless.</p><p>Blight glanced at her, <em>danger</em>, and then back at Amity. She'd never broken a spell over someone before. "I think we should get her to that clinic. This is concerning but it's not life-threatening and I might do more damage than good." <em>Danger!</em></p><p>"Can you try? I'm scared!" Little Luz whined as Blight felt Noceda shift her hand across her back and brace her other shoulder instead, which was probably meant to be comforting (<em>DANGER) </em> but was stressing her out instead.</p><p>"I said it's not a good idea." She said irritably and jerked her shoulder so that Noceda would get the hint that she was crowding her. No such hint was taken and she glared at her human for acting so oddly anxious. Then Noceda's eyes met her own and it clicked.</p><p>
  <em>Oh. Danger.</em>
</p><p>She tried to push Noceda off of her but the imposter reacted within a blink and wrapped the oppressive arm around her neck. The other arm immediately came around to support the first, trapping her in a sturdy headlock. Both of Blight's hands whipped up but just as her claws started sinking into flesh, eliciting a hiss from this Not-ceda, glowing pink bands of light wrapped around her wrists and her hands were jerked away. She glared at the false human standing behind the couch, one glowing ribbon in each hand forcing her arms to stretch over Amity's prone form.</p><p>"Still so slow on the uptake." False Luz was grinning widely at her with far too much malice in her brown eyes to even remotely resemble the girl they were supposed to be. "You've been slacking, Mittens."</p><p>Panic was making Blight seize up, or perhaps it was the looming threat of no air. She could see the equally horrible grin just inches away from her ear. With a furious snarl she tried to wrench her body to the left, away from whichever of her siblings was choking her. She didn't get far, they were already braced to grapple and she hadn't been.</p><p>Precious seconds ticked by as she struggled. The arm was pressed so tightly against her throat that there was no chance of taking a proper breath. She was going to black out.</p><p>Desperately, she tried to tug her arms for even a tiny bit of slack. If she could just spin up a spellcircle then perhaps she could-</p><p>"Ah ah," the fake Luz jeered, <em>'We</em> might not be your special human friends but <em>she's</em> just as real as any of us."</p><p>It took a few seconds for her to realize that they were pointing out her hands' proximity to the unconscious witch in front of her, who was definitely the real Amity. Anything forceful enough to knock these two off of her would hurt Amity a<em> lot</em> more. And that was assuming she could complete a full spellcircle in the first place.</p><p>That would have been nice. When did it get so dark in here?</p><p>
  <em>"Good night Mittens~"</em>
</p><p>G'nite...</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Next Chapter: A Blightmare on Hellm Street - Part 1</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. A Blightmare on Hellm Street - Part 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Okie croakie, so this chapter introduces some more flavours of torment to our wonderful journey in dystopian Bonesborough. Angst, fear and abuse ahead! Kinda Coraline-vibey methinks.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Blight Manor - 2:03 pm</p><p>~ * ~</p><p>The moment Amity realized she was conscious she jolted upright and launched off of the comfy, if somewhat dusty, four-poster bed.</p><p>
  <em>What happened? Where am I? How long was I out?</em>
</p><p>A few seconds of frenzied glances around the dimly-lit room answered one of the questions racing through her mind; This was her bedroom. Or at least it looked close enough to be her bedroom with noticeable differences, so this must be Blight's bedroom.</p><p>
  <em>Someone cast a spell and knocked me out.</em>
</p><p>Fear and indignation warred inside her and she immediately went up to the window. The curtains were mostly pulled closed and letting in some sunlight down the middle, so at least it was still daytime. She reached out to pull them open and fully intended on exiting through the window. She had absolutely zero interest in playing around with anyone who would move her somewhere against her will, even if the likely culprits were Blight's family judging by where she'd ended up.</p><p>Attempting to so much as touch the curtains turned out to be a mistake though. The moment she made contact with the violet drapery a loud crackling accompanied a fierce shock that ran up her arm. She hissed and backed away quickly, cradling her numb hand. She glared towards the window and tried to stay angry at it. Anxiousness was clawing at her and waiting to fill the void with something worse the moment she stopped being irritated.</p><p>She snatched a book off of the nearby shelf and gingerly pressed it to the curtain, hoping that she could push it aside with something acting as a buffer. Another sharp jolt proved that theory wrong, and she tossed the book in frustration at the window. Instead of billowing aside from the assault, the curtains didn't move at all and repelled the book quite violently, leaving it smoking slightly on the carpet.</p><p>A rhythmic, breathy noise like a toneless chuckle from somewhere in the room made a chill race up her spine. She was quickly losing her grasp on that hot anger and she really didn't want to start panicking and lose her ability to think clearly.</p><p>Amity turned slowly in place, scanning the dimly-lit room much more carefully until she saw her. There was no mistaking it; This world's Emira was sitting on a large toy chest, watching her. Amity put everything she had into not freaking out.</p><p>The older witch, several years older than her own sister in fact, lounged in a non-threatening posture. She looked anything but harmless though. If the hard patches on her skin and dull, oddly-textured hair weren't enough to give away that she was suffering from corruption, then her eyes definitely would. They looked mean; They looked cruel.</p><p>Before she could fight down the waver in her voice and ask why she was brought here, Amity became aware of distant voices. She didn't want to stay in this room a moment longer with this world's creepy version of her sister and she edged towards the door, which surprisingly was left slightly ajar. Emira made no move to stop her, instead she was surveying Amity almost boredly.</p><p>Amity carefully opened the door and, with a quick glance to make sure Emira stayed where she was, slipped out into the familiar hallway. To her left and past several rooms was a window at the end of the hall. Her right hand was still tingling from direct contact with the barrier on her own window but she would have to at least check if this one was being blocked as well. In less than two steps however, she halted, hearing her name spoken by the voice coming from the opposite end of the hall.</p><p>She wouldn't have called the urge to investigate a morbid curiosity so much as an interest in knowing more about her situation before everyone in the house knew she was awake. Emira hadn't left her, well, Blight's bedroom still and so Amity quietly tip-toed down the hall towards the room closest to the stairs that she knew from her house to be Father's study. The voice was coming from behind the closed door, and although the cadence sounded like her mother there was definitely something <em>wrong</em> about it.</p><p>She heard her name again. It sounded like the woman was talking to her, lecturing actually. Amity suddenly got a sinking feeling that she wasn't the only one who had been brought here. Summoning up every lick of courage, she gingerly grasped the doorknob and turned, pushing the door open a few inches to peek in.</p><p><em>Thought so. </em>Blight stood on the other side of the room, bristling but otherwise not moving. She seemed to be trying to maintain eye contact with the speaker but kept glancing away. Amity shifted closer to see the person standing in the middle of the room with their back to her. It looked a lot like her father, and he was holding the woman who was speaking in his arms bridal style. There were dozens of off-white thorns protruding from his arm, shirt and side of his neck that Amity could see. The movement or sound of covering her mouth with a shaking hand caught Blight's attention and she looked right at Amity. Her gold eyes widened with recognition and the expression she took on made Amity's stomach drop.</p><p>"What are you looking at?" The woman's neck extended grotesquely past the arm of not-Father and the scarred, disapproving face of not-Mother glared at her.</p><p>Amity couldn't help the high-pitched yelp that burst out of her and she tripped over herself trying to back away. Her rump hit the floor painfully and her foot knocked the door open all the way. The man who resembled her father from behind, this world's Alador, began turning in place and Amity looked away before she could take in any more of the pair's corrupted visage.</p><p>"It's worse than I thought." She heard the woman, this world's Odalia, mutter to herself. "Amity," she spoke much more directly and with absolute authority, "Go to your room this instant. Your Father and I will see you when we are ready."</p><p>Amity scrambled to her feet and bounded back towards her room, Blight's room, <em>whatever,</em> and she shut the door once she was inside. She leaned against the wall, shaking and staring ahead. She nearly shrieked when she noticed Emira still sitting on the toy chest; she'd forgotten about the other witch in her shock.</p><p>
  <em>Oh Titan they're all corrupted. They're all scary and horrible and I'm trapped in here with them.</em>
</p><p>Even though it wasn't actually her bed, Amity dashed over to the four-poster and climbed on, heedless of her shoes. She put her back to the headboard and drew her knees up with a pillow wedged tightly against her chest. The thin layer of dust that kicked up from her motions made her sneeze.</p><p>For some period of time all she could do was stay there and shiver. She could still hear the far-off, muffled voice of Odalia. Occasionally she would reluctantly let her eyes drift over to the silent witch on the other end of the room and most of the time she was staring back. It was incredibly unnerving.</p><p>It felt like a lot longer than it probably had been, but eventually Amity's breathing evened out enough to try speaking. Luz wouldn't just sit here and shiver. She had to be brave.</p><p>Amity tensed before addressing Emira, half expecting her to jump up and begin screeching or something. "Can you tell me why I was brought here?" She asked in a small voice.</p><p>Emira's eyes were on her though they barely caught any light from the glowing line up the middle of the window curtains. Her eyes looked like those of a dead thing.</p><p>"Can you tell me anything at all?" Amity tried again, drooping when all she got in return was a slow blink. "Please say something.." She whispered, more to herself than anything.</p><p>Amity tried very hard not to let tears fall, but she lost that battle after a while. She couldn't hear the stern voice from down the hall anymore. She had no idea what to expect or do about her situation.</p><p>
  <em>I hope Luz doesn't think I'm still mad at her about our argument. Surely she won't think I've run away? No, she's smart. She will know something is wrong. She'll find me.</em>
</p><p>At some point Amity got up and stepped into the en-suite bathroom, discovering that the water was indeed running and the window in there was protected by a shock barrier as well. She debated staying in there if just to get away from Emira's horrible stare, but somehow being trapped in the smaller room made her feel worse so she went back to the bed to wait. For what exactly, she wasn't sure.</p><p>When she heard slow, heavy footsteps coming down the hall she automatically jumped off the bed and stood at attention. It was more instinct than anything, which was almost reassuring among the rest of her frightened emotions. Emira rose to her feet as well, although her posture wasn't nearly so stiff.</p><p>Back in her own dimension, Amity didn't have a good relationship with her parents. Or that is to say, she didn't have a relationship that allowed much familial intimacy. Had she been older and more experienced with the world she may have likened their daily exchanges to a set of business interactions.</p><p>That being said, when the door opened and the twisted versions of care-givers she had known her entire life strode in... it was exceptionally hard to stomach.</p><p>Alador had inch-long spines poking out of his skin everywhere. Many were surrounded by scabs, some bled sluggishly. He stared ahead with his one good eye, looking at nothing. The other socket looked both caved-in and blown out with all sorts of twisted bony-looking protrusions pouring from it.</p><p>In his arms he carried the shrivelled, curled-in body of Odalia. The scarring on her face suggested that she had been removing some kind of persistent growths. Her neck twisted unnaturally to look down at Amity disapprovingly despite the position of the rest of her body. And her eyes... this wasn't a person anymore. Amity felt like a bug ready to be systematically dissected.</p><p>She couldn't look at them, and at first they didn't seem to notice while Odalia began speaking to her in a stern tone.</p><p>"Amity. Your father and I are very displeased with your recent behaviour. Shirking your duties to this family lately has been bad enough, but running away from home? Ridiculous. Absolutely disgusting." Her voice was similar enough to her own mother for the words to peel Amity from the inside out despite the raspy undertones and odd whistling like she had holes in her esophagus. She wasn't even fully absorbing the meaning of the words, just the intended scorn.</p><p>"As a Blight, you are expected to uphold the high standards and image we have always cultivated. Your outrageous disregard of this house's rules and protests of your upcoming Hexhibition Gala are unbecoming and will be discontinued. <em>Look at me when I'm speaking to you, child</em>." She nearly hissed the last part and Amity flicked her stinging eyes back to the woman's scowling face.</p><p>Breathing and blinking and not falling over was taking up much of her brain's processing power at the moment, though as Odalia continued on with all of Amity's supposed short-comings and recent failures it dawned on her that she was talking to Amity like... well like she was the Amity Blight of this world. Which clashed with what she thought she heard before in the study. Odalia had been speaking to Blight like a disappointed parent and was calling her by her first name like one would expect her to.</p><p>
  <strong>"Look at me when I'm speaking to you Amity."</strong>
</p><p>The cross tone added one more heavy long to the pile-up of emotions in her and Amity felt about ready to burst. She tried to keep her eyes locked on the face of this terrifying woman who looked too much like her mother. It was so hard, she felt exposed and pinned in place and <em>small.</em></p><p>"You will resume working on your presentation for the Hexhibition Gala and you will <em>not</em> fall behind in your magic training or studies. Is that clear?"</p><p>
  <em>I'm not supposed to go to the Gala for another three years. I don't want to show the other snotty families how well-bred I am. I want to marry Luz and find out what happiness is like. I don't want to be here.</em>
</p><p>Amity felt like she was just a couple more misplaced responsibilities away from becoming hysterical.</p><p>"Yes.. Mother." She practically whispered as those eyes drilled in to her with obvious expectation of an answer.</p><p>This seemed to satisfy the much older witch and she <em>finally</em> took those eyes off of Amity. It was slightly less awful to see her sinewy neck stretch around the statuesque Alador so she could speak to Emira still standing by the toy chest instead.</p><p>"Emira, you will assist with serving Amity's punishment for running away from home. Edric has your instructions."</p><p>The room seemed to get so much colder with those words. Amity was trembling so hard she could barely keep standing. She managed to somehow look Odalia in the eyes, she was loathe to be caught doing otherwise, as the woman twisted her head to scowl down at her again and say one last thing.</p><p>"Amity, you will not leave your room during the duration of your punishment, or it will be extended."</p><p>With some unspoken command, Alador stiffly turned and made his way through the bedroom door and Amity heard his heavy footsteps become fainter down the hall. Emira was baring her teeth in some kind of terrible grin and drifted out of the room after them.</p><p> </p><p>Amity spent long ten minutes sitting at the foot of the bed, watching the open door and waiting for something horrible to step back into the room. She thought her heart might stop when Blight began screaming from somewhere else in the house.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Bonesborough Market - 12:29 pm</p><p> </p><p>"Shit!" Noceda cursed and lifted the discarded witch's bag. Her hunch played out, Amity had been switched in this alleyway.</p><p>"That's Amity's!" Luz collided with her, the poor girl was nearly frantic. Noceda handed her the bag and they combed the dingy alleyway for any sign of the green-haired witch.</p><p>"'Kay, so we're fairly sure she's missing-missing and not just, I dunno, avoiding you guys because she and Luz had a fight?" Gus asked carefully from the street. The thought had occurred to Noceda, but Amity didn't have much expertise with illusion magic. She couldn't have created such a convincing copy of herself.</p><p>"Amity wouldn't do that!" Luz answered for her and ran back over to them. She looked about ready to burst into tears. "She knows something like this would make us freak out, there's no way she would go missing on purpose."</p><p>"Okay. Okay, okay..." Gus pinched the bridge of his nose and then got Noceda's attention. "Here's a plan. I'll go get a bunch of my people on this, we'll look for her spiraling out from the market. You guys head to Willow's and find out if she's noticed anything strange with her vines. Sound good?"</p><p>Noceda ran a hand through her hair under her beanie, doing her best to keep cool and collected. She nodded at Gus who took that as his cue to rush off towards the Bonesguard headquarters. She looked over to Luz who had opened Amity's bag and was calling Owlbert out.</p><p>"Owlbert here's the 'sitch; Amity is missing and we have to find her as soon as possible! Can you try looking for her from the sky?"</p><p>The little wooden owl puffed out his chest and struck a wing to it twice, taking on a determined look and hopping off Luz's arm to climb dozens of feet in the air within seconds. He evened out and began scouring the streets and buildings from above.</p><p><em>Good idea Luz.</em> Noceda pried her gaze off of the darting brown palisman and tapped Luz on the shoulder to get her attention. The kid's big wide eyes were looking to her with desperate hope.</p><p>She got down on a knee and planted two hands firmly on Luz's shoulders, making sure she had the girl's full attention before speaking.</p><p>"Luz, hear me alright? We are going to find Amity, but we need to stay calm. If we're too frantic to think clearly, then we could miss something important." She spoke with deliberate assuredness, not sure if it was exclusively just for the younger teen. "I'm going to head for Willow's; Her vines are all over the city and she's bound to have seen something. Our messenger demon should have alerted Blight by now and will be leading her to us. Do you want to come with me? I really think we should stick together."</p><p>Luz didn't look away even once, she was trying very hard to absorb the words and calm down. She nodded when Noceda finished and latched on to her hand while she slung Amity's bag over her shoulder with the other.</p><p>"Let's go." The kid put on her bravest face, and seeing that resolution helped spur Noceda on as well.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Blight Manor - 6:31 pm</p><p> </p><p>Amity's muscles were cramped from holding her hands over her ears and shivering in the fetal position for hours. She had no tears left. She didn't know how long Blight was screaming and cursing for nor how long it had been since she'd stopped.</p><p>When Edric poked at her, calling her name in a teasing tone, she almost launched off the bed. She hadn't heard him approach.</p><p>"Hey mini-Mittens, wakey wakey. Anyone still in there?" He jeered. Amity could almost believe it was her own brother if his voice hadn't been noticeably deeper. Aaaaand if he hadn't been covered in bleeding sores with hooked thorns growing out of them. She slid off the bed on the opposite side from where he stood, watching him warily. His claws were longer than his hands.</p><p>She noticed Emira leaning in the doorframe, she was silhouetted somewhat which told Amity that there must be at least one light on in the hallway. There were no lights in here other than the window that let in dim evening rays from the one little crack in the curtains.</p><p>All of Amity's crying had left her with one useful thing; numbness. She glared at Edric and said in a croaky voice, "What do you want?"</p><p>He appeared to be amused by her ability to ask that with a detectible amount of venom.</p><p>He shrugged and spoke easily. "Mom said we are to assess your physical and mental constitution now that you've been punished for running away."</p><p>Hot anger seeped into Amity starting from her chest. The sheer <em>injustice</em>  of this whole mess was ridiculous. By the time the heat reached and curled her fingers into shaking fists Edric had the audacity to look eager at what she would say.</p><p>"Is that what you were doing to Blight?" She hissed, not caring that he rose an eyebrow at the use of their last name to refer to his sister. "You were <em>punishing</em> her for trying to get away from this nightmare? How can you two stand here and go along with this craziness? Our mo- <em>your </em>mother is insane! Anyone can see it! What she's doing is wrong!" Amity tried very hard not to let her voice become loud enough to carry. Somehow she was able to let out some of her anger at Edric, but she couldn't face their monstrous parents again so soon.</p><p>Edric shrugged like she was describing how boiling rain worked. "We didn't really have a choice, mini-Mittens. It alright if I call you that? Great." He ignored her attempt to interrupt and with a gesture he signalled that she was to move out from behind the bed. "Come on, we can chat but let's do it on the go. Mother won't be pleased if she finds us dallying."</p><p>Amity knew it wouldn't be a clever idea to try and fight them, there was no way she could win against the two older witches. She slowly stepped around the bed and hesitantly followed as Edric shuffled to leave the bedroom. If they were going to be walking throughout the house, this might be a good chance to spot any possible escape routes.</p><p>She neared the door and saw Edric disappear into the hall off to the right while Emira leaned on the left side of the doorframe. Amity waited a moment to see if she would move, but her challenging stare said otherwise. With a little gulp, Amity slipped past her quickly and tried not to brush up against the witch. Her face and arms were dotted with small, round hard patches among the larger ones that she couldn't see until she'd gotten this close. If Emira was growing bony projections like the rest of them seemed to be, they either surfaced differently or she'd been filing them down.</p><p>They passed the door that Amity would have known as the old nursery in her own version of the manor. Across from the closed door shone the one bright lamp that provided any indoor lighting that Amity had seen so far.</p><p>Something occurred to her then.</p><p>"Where are you keeping your sister?" Amity asked while she paused in front of the closed door. Edric looked over his shoulder (which caused a couple of the spines breaching his collar bone to slice into the skin under his jaw, not that he seemed to notice) and looked at her, then at the door she was next to. He smirked, just a bit.</p><p>"In there." He nodded to the nursery, then resumed making his way down the hall. Emira stepped so closely up to Amity from behind that she got a chill from the proximity and she hurried to put more distance between herself and the sinister witch.</p><p>
  <em>Thought so. Blight sounded like she was still on this floor and other than the bedroom and Father's study, all the other doors are open. </em>
</p><p>"Is she okay?" <em>Please be okay. </em>She fought the urge to glance back at the nursery door behind them. She'd probably just get an eyeful of Emira if she did.</p><p>"She's sleeping." Was all Edric decided to reply, and unfortunately it did the job it was intended to and started Amity's nerves acting up again. The only solace she had was that sleeping meant still living.</p><p>They descended the stairs and Amity subtly tried to take in as many details about the ground floor as she could.</p><p>The front door wasn't boarded up or anything, so that was a start. She missed the chance to look in the east-side living room and she had to stop herself from looking into the west-side living room because Odalia was in there. Two rooms more on the left side and they were at the tall double doors that led into the training hall.</p><p>Just as with her own world's version of the manor, they walked through the ornate doors and entered into a space much larger than what the building would have been able to hold if judged from outside by its apparent size. The training hall was probably as spacious as the rest of the house combined, though it was much longer and only had one tall-ceilinged level to it.</p><p>Amity eyed the various equipment around the room used for strengthening one's body as well as the many types of weapons that she had at least a basic understanding of how to use. Perhaps she could sneak something away that was small and sharp, like a dagger or such.</p><p>"Alright mini-Mittens. Show me what'cha got." Edric said lightly, and behind Amity she heard Emira close the double doors. "Also, you're not to use any magic. I think Mother doesn't want you to go all uggo like the rest of us." He let out a tragic little snicker at his choice of wording.</p><p>Amity watched the older witch warily. Did he expect her to fight him? Without magic? He and Emira had to be at least 20 years old!</p><p>"You're twice my size, how is that fair? Why do we need to do this anyways?" She stalled for time, taking stock of which weapons were closest to her and easily accessible.</p><p>Edric wound his fingers together behind his neck and stood boredly.</p><p>"I told you didn't I? Mother wants to see how much of a weakling you are. That way she can come up with a suitably terrible regimen for you. If you're afraid of sparring I guess we could put you through endurance drills instead. I'm going to have to tell her though."</p><p>His carefree attitude was at such odds with the hurtful things he was saying. Amity had to breathe in deeply a few times and tried her best to ignore the burning in her eyes. She'd cried enough, and as usual, it didn't change much. Her stomach twisted with nerves and growled with hunger. Never mind that she would have liked dinner by now but she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. She told herself that at least some of her shaking had to be from low blood sugar.</p><p>"Can I have something to eat first? I'm really hungr-" She tried, but a sharply annoyed 'tsk' from behind her was all the warning she got before Emira dashed forward and struck her squarely in the back.</p><p>Amity barely managed to pull her arms up to brace as she hit the smooth floor of the training hall. The blow hurt, but she was more shocked than anything. She got up and glared at Emira, too angry about the dirty tactic to lose out to her fear of the witch's scary appearance at the moment.</p><p>"Well, I guess that's fine too." Amity heard Edric mutter and he wandered to one of the weapon racks to lean on it and watch.</p><p>Emira didn't give Amity the chance for a proper warm-up as she stalked forward confidently and swung repeatedly at her. She had to stumble backwards out of range or she risked getting slammed by the outside of the older witch's forearms or the backs of her fists. It was a small mercy that Emira didn't have any sharp bits to her that Amity could see.</p><p>Physical combat hadn't necessarily been Amity's strong point when it came to fighting, nor did she have extensive training unlike her studies of the magical side of things. If Emira wasn't expecting her to use magic just because Edric told her not to, then she could utilize the most important element of battle.</p><p>Strategy.</p><p>Amity took some time dashing back and doing the best she could to avoid Emira's initial aggressive strikes. She had a hard time even looking at the older witch without cringing, and she needed to get over that <em>fast</em>. She could tell that trying to keep her distance was annoying Emira though and each time they made eye contact it felt like an extra blow to the chest.</p><p>The opportunity presented itself for her to try and pay the older witch back for her sneak attack earlier. She let Emira get close (at least, she liked to see it that way to keep her spirit up) and she mustered all her courage to grab the other witch by the collar of her blouse. Emira had a second or two to smugly smirk at her before Amity swung around with a handful of fire that she'd spun up behind her back.</p><p>Amity thought for sure she was going to at least stun Emira by slamming the fireball into her head, but before she could connect the older witch already had an arm up.</p><p>Emira knocked Amity's hand away so hard it made her bones rattle up to her shoulder and she wondered just how far the mean witch would take this fight. There was no guarantee that Odalia would actually notice if she were in pieces, was there?</p><p>"Remember mini-Mittens, no magic! I have to keep track and punish you accordingly when you disobey Mother's orders." Edric called out melancholy from his place by the weapons rack.</p><p><em>Punish me or punish Blight again? Either way, I guess I have no choice, </em>Amity thought bitterly. She was thankful that her anger was keeping her focus off of the fear and hopelessness that kept waiting to pounce on her. It didn't seem like they were going to kill her, so that helped a little bit.</p><p>"Pace yourself, Min-min, you have to keep it up until 9 pm sharp."</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Oh joy.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p>Bonesborough North Residential  - 5:12 pm</p><p> </p><p>Luz was thankful for Noceda's ability to keep cool under pressure, although it hadn't held up quite as well when they discovered that Blight was missing too. It had been Luz's turn to help reassure the older teen through the initial shock of their messenger demon returning with an irritated 'failure to locate message recipient' squawk.</p><p>
  <em>"She's not in the Market and no one is reporting anything from Central yet. Are you and Luz back from the library?" </em>
</p><p>Luz could hear Gus' voice coming from the chest of their messenger demon that Noceda was holding. He sounded less out of breath than her when she replied.</p><p>"Yeah, we're almost back to Willow's now. You there?"</p><p>Luz and Noceda had checked both the safehouse and the Library (including Blight's hide-out, which was so <em>unfair </em>somehow) for any signs of the witches but came up with diddly-squat. They were on their way back to rendezvous at Willow's house to see if her careful scanning of the North residential district and Hexside brought up anything useful. Her vines were extremely dense in those parts of the city. Unfortunately, the powerful plant witch hadn't known something was up until she saw the three of them running around back-tracking and calling Amity's name loudly, so she didn't have any leads for them to go on when they saw her hours ago.</p><p><em>"Yeah, I'm outside her place. Want me to wait for you or should I head in?" </em>Gus asked.</p><p>"We'll be there in a minute." Noceda replied and she took her moderate jog to a much faster dash. Luz was keeping up with all of the running they had been doing but as much as she hated to admit it, she was getting tired and winded.</p><p>
  <em>I can't slow anyone down. Amity needs me! Blight too. We need to find them! We <strong>will </strong>find them!</em>
</p><p>She caught up with and ran alongside her older counterpart towards the towering tree that grew from the husk of a building.</p><p>They found Gus speaking to a few of his soldiers and some of them jogging away as they reached Willow's. While it could have been more helpful to have Willow keep in contact using a messenger demon, the little critters wouldn't enter the house willingly and froze up if they were forced. It was also one of the securest places to speak without being overheard by the Home Groaner people, which Luz hadn't even known was an issue until just recently.</p><p>"Based on everything we've gotten so far, this might be going in the direction you feared, Noceda." Willow's voice bounced around the huge room. There was a definite choking quality to the air in here. The plant witch was <em>mad.</em> She took the potential kidnapping very personally on a few levels. Whoever or whatever was behind the disappearances managed to do so right under her nose. Vines. Nose-vines.  </p><p>"Yeah, fucking great," Noceda spat, "and you said no one has actually seen the Blights in how long? Who knows if they're all fucked up by now." The older teen was clawing at her hair for all the same reasons Luz was pulling and massaging her knuckles. "Since they're not part of your guys' healing system and they might not know about glyphs then they could be absolute monsters. I hope I'm wrong and they're all harmless or dead, but we have to check and make sure."</p><p>Luz rounded on Noceda and she didn't mean to sound accusatory but her nerves were definitely getting the better of her.</p><p>"I still don't see why we haven't gone there yet. This is an emergency, those Home Groney people will understand! Let's just go and apologize later!" She was almost shouting. It wasn't helpful but she didn't <em>care</em>. Then and there, Luz decided she'd go marching over to Blight's old home right now to look around regardless of who was coming with her. Amity was more important than whatever political bullcrap they had going on here!</p><p>"Seeing as there is some screwy family history with the Blights and time is not a resource lightly wasted in situations such as these, I would agree with our young friend." Willow spoke evenly, although there was still a detectible amount of eager heat in her tone. Luz nodded hugely and only doubled in determination as Gus took on a very nervous look.</p><p>"Yeah, I get that you guys want to go storming over there but we don't have any proof and the council is already riled up enough from us tearing around the city with half the guard." His hands were out in an attempt to get across what he obviously thought was important but it didn't matter at <em>all</em> to Luz. She and Noceda exchanged looks while Gus kept on, increasingly frantic.</p><p>"At least some of the Blights are still alive and they do correspond with the hoity-toities of the HGA. If we cause a scene over there and the Groaners think Willow, or me for that matter, are stepping out of bounds then we're going to have a whole lot more problems on our hands. We might as well infiltrate Top Pick Boulevard while we're at it, they're going to think we're trying to start a civil war!"</p><p>Noceda threw her arms up in the air in exasperation. "Then don't come with us! Me and Luz will go and if something's fishy in there then you'll have your proof! Or, we'll bust in and get them ourselves, whichever comes first. If they get all pissed at us then we'll just leave Bonesborough."</p><p>Luz crossed her arms and glared at Gus, daring him to argue that plan.</p><p>He scowled back at Noceda. "Yeah that's solid. Forget that you guys are associated with me and Willow so your actions<em> will</em> have consequences for us, but I'm not going to let you two go launching head-first into something dangerous like that! Everyone in East and South res that aren't dead are highly corrupted, that includes the area the Blights live in! There's a reason we had to wall those parts of the city off!" He appeared to be pleading more than he was angry but it was all coming across as the same thing. Opposition.</p><p>"I can help in ways they'd never know about. If you two decide to go check for them there, I'm in." Willow said slyly. Luz couldn't see her face from where she stood, but she could imagine those glowing eyes narrowing. Gus shot an angry look way, way up at her.</p><p>Noceda was storming across the room and heading for the plant-walled hallway and Luz was quick to follow. Looks like they were both done with this discussion. She could hear Gus whine nervously behind her and jog over to catch up with them. He was rambling about taking a few people with them and trying to ask nicely about accusing the esteemed family of kidnapping.</p><p><em>We'll find you Amity, </em>Luz thought with fearsome determination in her heart. <em>We'll save you no matter where you are. And sorry Gus; If they were kidnapped by their supposed 'family' then there's </em><strong>no way</strong><em> we're going to be nice about it.</em></p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Blight Manor - 9:00 pm</p><p> </p><p>Amity barely had the energy to care when Edric opened the big double doors of the training hall and Odalia's head floated in with her neck stretched so thin it was like looking at a meat balloon with hair and a face.</p><p>"It is nine o'clock children. Please accompany me to your Father's study for a snack and a review of Amity's assessment." She said primly.</p><p>Sweat dripped and stung down Amity's face while she panted hard. Each droplet hit the floor in-between and around her splayed fingers against the cool floor. It was all she could do to bring herself to her feet and not immediately fall over since her muscles burned from being pushed so hard. She knew she was covered in bruises. It was not a look she was used to or enjoyed.</p><p>Edric tossed her a hand towel on their way out of the room and even though she hated his guts she used it to wipe her face and she tried to school her hair into something slightly better than 'just-been-kicked-around-for-two-hours' style. Oh Titan, was she sore.</p><p>"Emira go wake your sister please. She's slept long enough." Odalia directed and prompted a mean smile to appear on the other witch's face. She seemed delighted for the task and disappeared quickly.</p><p>Odalia retracted her head at a moderate pace, holding it up as if it were still attached to a body in the usual sense. She even bobbed a bit to mimic the motions that came from walking. Edric followed along behind her and Amity was at the back, struggling to keep up especially when they were ascending the stairs. By the time they had gathered in the study, Amity was too wrecked to feel afraid of Alador and his horrible vacant silence or cartilage-spewing eye socket.</p><p>"You will give us Amity's performance review now, Edric." Amity could hear her voice coming from a little above the chair where the rest of her body was laid, off to the side of the intimidating large desk that separated Alador from the rest of the family members in the room.</p><p>Edric cleared his throat and stood straighter, like he was preparing for a grand speech.</p><p>"Amity displayed sub-par ability in basic combat practice, as well as sluggish speed and reflex testing. She tires easily and lacks the ferocity expected of a Blight in my opinion."</p><p>Amity slowly turned her head to look at him so she wouldn't worsen her headache. She hadn't expected Edric to make her look very good in front of their mother. At least he didn't seem to be enjoying this torment. He looked attentive enough but he sounded monotonous, almost resigned. Like he was following a script.</p><p>"In addition, I believe Amity has let herself become overly influenced by emotional thinking. She gives up quickly and is easily spooked. One might even call her mannerisms quite timid."</p><p>She didn't want to, she <em>really </em>didn't want to, but Amity pried her gaze off of Edric to gain maybe a few seconds warning of how Odalia was going to react to the damning report. The woman's eyes were locked on to her son's face while he spoke, then they flitted over to Alador whose silence she seemed to take as agreement to her conclusions. Finally, they were back to boring into Amity like twin pikes.</p><p>"Very disappointing Amity. Even with such a short time away from your studies and training you have allowed yourself to regress this much."</p><p>It was easier this time around to hold back the tears and frustration of being lectured, again. Exhaustion could do that, she supposed. As Odalia went on unfairly about how Amity will work harder to keep herself physically, mentally and emotionally fit to represent the Blight family name she managed to not look away this time by firmly affixing her eyes to stare at a spot on the awful woman's chin. It worked, for the most part, until she realized she had tuned out some of the speech and she heard the word 'snack' uttered in there somewhere.</p><p>"-your snack in the Children's Study Room, not that you deserve one it seems, and you will eat it before Ms. Clawthorne arrives for your tutoring session."</p><p>If she hadn't been overwhelmed and confused enough as it was, now Amity was expected to do <em>more</em> training and with someone she knew to be dead in this world?</p><p>"Please!" She hated the pleading sound in her voice but she had to say something, "I'm so tired, please let me rest!" The idea of sleeping in this place was terrifying in and of itself, but collapsing scared her even more. Who knows what they would do to her or Blight if she passed out?</p><p>The horrible woman <em>scoffed</em> at her.</p><p>"You want to <em>rest? </em>Amity dear, you just woke up. Stop being silly, it's very undignified."</p><p>Amity practically spluttered to make her case but evidently Odalia was long since finished with the discussion and snapped, "Not another word of this. Off you go." Edric guided her out of the study before she had a chance to possibly make more trouble for herself, though she doubted he did it out of kindness.</p><p>The children's study room was on the other end of the hall to the right and part of the south wall of the manor. She and Edric had to pass the still closed door of the nursery room and as they got closer Amity could hear the muffled sounds of struggling and angry yells coming from the other side of the door.</p><p>"What's happening to her in there?" Amity demanded and glared up at Edric. She wasn't sure if she actually wanted to know but she did want the older witch to see her displeasure at the very least.</p><p>"Emira is helping Mittens with magic training. Best not try to disturb them."</p><p><em>But that doesn't make sense!</em>  "You told me that I wasn't supposed to use magic!" She reminded him. What kind of cruel game was this?</p><p>Her voice must have been loud enough to make it across the door because she was fairly sure she could hear Blight calling her name. It broke her heart to be herded further down the hall by Edric while he explained.</p><p>"Yeah, <em>you</em> aren't to use magic. Mittens is gonna be 'training' until Mom is 'satisfied with her progress'." He used finger quotes while he spoke which were emphasized greatly due to his long claws.</p><p>Amity wanted to scream, not that she had the energy to. The insane woman was treating her and Blight as if they were the same person and yet not at the same time and it was confusing. Edric seemed to realize that there were two versions of his sister here, or at least that they were two different people. If Emira was aware of it, Amity had no way to tell.</p><p>"Why are you going along with this? You and Emira can leave! It was you two that brought me and your sister here right, why not use that chance to escape?" She wiped around her neck with the damp hand towel, irritated by the tickling sensation of sweat. She felt gross.</p><p>"Why are you not trying to escape?" Edric asked instead. He stood by the open door and motioned for her to go in. Amity eyed the curtained-off window not eight feet away at the end of the hall.</p><p>"... You won't let me." Amity grumbled back. It hurt to admit it, but she was going to either need a very lucky break or to wait for Luz to come find her. As long as she knew Luz was searching for her, Amity could endure whatever this place threw at her. She hoped.</p><p>"Hmm. Sounds about right." The reply was both ominous and somehow wistful. She was tired of his cryptic lines.</p><p>Edric closed the door and Amity looked around the medium-sized room with its walls of books and a familiar trio of desks. Set out on two of them were a couple plates with some kind of tart on it and two glasses of water. She rushed over to the closest desk and downed the glass, quickly following up with the tart. There was no telling if there was any funny business going on with the food or drink (other than the tart being very stale) but she didn't care right at that moment.</p><p>She eyed the other tart and looked at Edric who took a seat backwards on one of the chairs with his arms sticking out over the back.</p><p>"Any chance there's an actual meal thrown into all this?" She asked him. He sucked his teeth and didn't look at her while he answered. "Mittens gets dinner after her magic training."</p><p>Amity's heart fell. She was thankful that they were going to feed her older counterpart but that also likely meant that there wouldn't be a meal for herself anytime soon. 'A Blight does not over-eat' after all.</p><p>She took the other stale tart and ate it too. Thankfully, Edric didn't seem to notice or care. She sat down at the desk that she normally used at home and glared at the wall for a little while. Supposedly now they were waiting for a dead person to arrive?</p><p>"Lilith isn't coming." Amity broke the silence suddenly. "She won't be joining us on account of being deceased." It came out more bitterly than she'd meant it to.</p><p>"Hmm." Was all she got in ways of a reply. She turned to look at Edric who was clearly not intending to get up any time soon. "I know she's not coming, but I didn't know she was dead. That's a bummer."</p><p>He didn't look the least bit bothered by the news. He didn't look anything really. Just worn-out and empty.</p><p>"What am I supposed to do now?" Amity asked with tired annoyance. Edric lazily twirled a finger and his clothes poofed into a mockery of the long-sleeved dress Amity was used to seeing on Lilith.</p><p>"Kinda obvious isn't it? Grab a book and at least look like you're studying or something in case Mom comes checking in."</p><p>Seeing a chance, she quickly asked, "If it's all the same to you, can I sleep while we're in here? I'm going to fall over and I don't want to give your mother any more reasons to punish me or Blight."</p><p>"Heh. She'll find reasons if she wants to." He sighed and closed his own eyes, letting the illusory clothing melt away. "You can sleep if you want but if Mom notices then we're both in trouble."</p><p>Amity seemed infected by the other witch's sigh as she picked up the closest dusty book to prop up in front of her face on the desk. Folding her arms and laying her head on them wasn't the comfiest position to sleep in by far, and she felt awful and sticky in her sweaty clothes. But she was so tired and it was more dignified than lying directly on the floor. She hoped Luz and Noceda would find them soon, she didn't know how much more of this marathon weirdness she could take.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Next Chapter: A Blightmare on Hellm Street - Part 2</p><p>(Rating might go up with the next ch, I'll judge while finalizing. Leaving most of the Coraline-meets-Hunger games for after we're all good and warmed up with Odalia's lunacy and the repercussions of it.  :I  )</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. A Blightmare on Hellm Street - Part 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks a super bunch to everyone for the lovely comments and kudos! I really love seeing your thoughts and I hungrily look forward to them~</p><p>I still feel that my rating could stay at Teen, but I've set it to Mature anyways. I realize that not everyone has the same horror/violence threshold and this chapter is more..yikes than usual, so.. yep. The big 'M'. Anywhoo..</p><p>Warning: This chapter contains scenes of horror and violence that may be disturbing to some readers. Those who don't feel they can handle unspoiled content with vaguely-defined intensity may possibly want to take off for a while and come back later when the screaming dies down. :P</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p>Top Pick Boulevard - 8:23 pm</p><p>~ * ~</p><p>
  <em>"- definitive proof of the use of city resources for unauthorized activity in addition to greatly disturbing the peace. Furthermore, planning military action against civilians without the proper-"</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Yeah, uh, they were in something of a mess. Let's back up a bit.</p><p> </p><p>Noceda had never actually been to Blight's house before on account of her parents being a huge bag of dicks each, so it was Gus that was leading their little party using the most direct route.</p><p>That meant going south-east across the city and along the border of the central residential area. This was great for picking up a couple guards to act as backup, but ultimately meant they were easily intercepted by the largest aggregation of assholes Noceda had ever the misfortune of meeting since high school.</p><p>Thusly, they were now before the Home Groaner's Association Council (aforementioned assholes) in the main conference hall of whatever the fuck this place was called. The building was being held up by a giant green hand in the middle of the city, and if that wasn't a great example of power-hungry overcompensation then she didn't know what was.</p><p>"Furthermore, planning military action against civilians without the proper-"</p><p>"Listen you pompous asshats, every minute we waste here talking to you is that much longer our friends are likely in danger for! The Blight house -"</p><p>"- <strong>Is not accessible to you. </strong>Now, do not interrupt us again or you will be forcibly silenced for the duration of this meeting, <em>human</em>."</p><p>If looks could kill then Noceda would have taken them all out at once. There were several council members present for their little soiree, all of them looking down from their high table with such contempt that it was a miracle the dais could support the weight of all the self-importance up there.</p><p>"Once again, commandeering city guard members for personal use is a clearly defined violation of your role, Captain Gus. Planning an unprovoked raid against the Blight family is not only illegal, but highly suspicious. Do you deny that your last position before undertaking this action was the lair of the witch known as Willow? A witch who is under strict watch for the potential threat she faces to this city on account of her dangerously erratic mutations?"</p><p>Oh she wanted to punch that narrative-twisting demon in the teeth so badly (he didn't have teeth, but Noceda would make do).</p><p>"I was at Willow's house while we were formulating a strategy to recover the missing witches mentioned." Gus stood tall and determinedly, and Noceda felt a bit guilty that his job and reputation were on the line now because he had been trying to help. "I would like to contest that I was employing members of the Bonesguard for personal use however, seeing as search-and-rescue is well within my-"</p><p>"Search-and-rescue of <em>Bonesborough citizens,</em>" No-teeth snarled back, flattening a clawed hand against the top of the table. "None of the four outsiders you allowed into the city have been formally registered and as such, have no rights here!"</p><p>"Amity Blight <em>is </em>a Bonesborough citizen! She grew up in this city for christ's sake!" Noceda yelled and received a dangerous glare from more than one council member. She was well aware of the several guards surrounding her and Luz, as well as the other captain of the guard, Mawey, who was Gus' equal in rank and ability. His showing up before they could reach Willow's wall on the east side was the main reason Gus had folded so easily and persuaded Noceda to meet with the council in the first place. Apparently, the alternative was to be arrested and the eyepatch-wearing former mercenary was no joke.</p><p>"I wouldn't expect an outsider, no less a <em>human,</em> to understand how our administration works. For the sake of speeding this along however, allow me to enlighten you." Another of the council members sneered. She looked like the type of witch who cooked puppies for fun.</p><p>"Only beings who have been entered into the Official Post-Aorta Bonesborough Registrar and maintain a good standing with this community are recognized as citizens. Seeing as the witch Amity Blight chose to leave the city approximately eighteen months ago <em>without</em> approval from this council or permission from her parents, she has been struck from the records until re-admitted through the usual process. <em>Which you skipped</em>."</p><p>Puppy-cooker was quickly becoming Noceda's least-favourite of the bunch. She hadn't stopped shooting dirty glances at her and Luz since they walked in.</p><p>"Returning to the issue at hand," A third member spoke, this time a solemn-looking witch with three eyes and a goatee, "Captain Gus, you have the unique and powerful position of not only co-command over our defensive forces, but also our highest-ranking liaison with the unstable witch who manages the outer walls of the city. You must understand that your autonomous actions put you in a very precarious situation."</p><p>He sounded like a reasonable sort of guy despite No-Teeth's eager nodding of agreement. With every sentence Gus looked more and more concerned and Noceda wished dearly that she had taken his warnings back at Willow's house more seriously. She had never wanted to leave a room so badly and was shaking with the effort it took to keep quiet.</p><p>"Tearing around the city with a part of our forces left us that much more vulnerable to outside attack as well as internal unrest, and launching investigations in multiple sectors without authorization frankly looks like a trial run for a much larger movement." Three-eyes didn't look suspicious but his tone gave away his scepticism. "You have stated that your next target for inquiry was the home of the Blight family, a prestigious bloodline and owner of many valuable assets, also whose head-of-house is a founding member of the Home Groaner's Association. What evidence do you have that they are in any way involved with the disappearance of the two witches you are supposedly searching for?"</p><p>
  <em>Uh, the fact that they're manipulative, unloving assholes who force their kids to grow up with unbearably strict standards and then use them for political marriages like they have no will of their own.</em>
</p><p>Noceda would have loved to speak her thoughts, but she had been testing the hostile witches and demons in charge enough as it was. All she could do right now was hope that Gus could say whatever he needed to so that these creeps would let them leave and they could keep searching for Blight and Amity. Hell, she almost <em>wanted</em> them to be kidnapped by Blight's awful parents just so she could stick it to these council guys and justify how much time they were wasting here. What would Blight's folks even do with her? She left! She had no reasonable value to them anymore.</p><p>Luz placed a hand on her arm to get her attention. While she had been ranting to herself, the council was about to declare an ultimatum.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Blight Manor - 11:00 pm</p><p> </p><p>It was a fitful hour or two of napping that Amity managed to get in before Edric was shaking her shoulder on his way to open the door.</p><p>Odalia's head entered the room and thanked Edric as though he were Lilith, and when he walked out into the hall and back in again she greeted him as if he hadn't just been there.<br/><br/></p><p>"Now Amity dear, you can understand that I have doubts regarding your ability to suitably present for the upcoming Hexhibition Gala. Your previously aired objections and subsequent decampment from this house and your studies leaves me no choice but to observe what little preparations you did make so I can accurately judge how much assistance you will need to regain an acceptable level of progress. You will not be embarrassing yourself nor this family in front of all those influential families, is that clear?"</p><p>Amity was used to her own parents being strict and having clearly-defined expectations of her but this Odalia was contempt personified. She knew that none of this horrible speech should be taken as a serious reflection of herself or her capabilities, but it was <em>so hard</em> to separate this twisted fantasy from the stringent but bearable reality she lived at home.</p><p>The seconds ticked by longer and slower while she waited for any instruction to follow. Odalia was watching her expectantly and Amity tried not to fidget.</p><p>Her knowledge of the Hexhibition Gala was limited to what her older sister had told her about it. Emira was to present at the one happening in a few months, after all. She only knew that eligible young witches and demons from important families would perform demonstrations of their power, wealth, and any other desirable assets they had to offer in hopes of fostering marriage alliances among the elite.</p><p>But Amity had no idea of what she was actually supposed to <em>do.</em> Sweat began tickling the back of her neck while she realized that she was going to have to admit to having no applicable understanding of any of this, and that Odalia was not going to like it.</p><p>Edric spoke then in a teasing sort of tone.</p><p>"Hehe, oh Amity you look like you've completely forgotten about how to perform complex spells to prove your strength."</p><p>Her eyes darted to him first in confusion and then in understanding (which she did her best to school away). Edric's words sounded like a jab but it gave her an idea of where to start.</p><p>Odalia seemed to notice Amity's attention being re-focused and her suspended head turned to appraise her son. "What was that dear?" Edric tilted his face directly towards Odalia and Amity noticed that while he spoke, he was enunciating far more clearly than when he faced away from her.</p><p>"Sorry Mother. I was merely commenting that Amity was taking an unusually long time to begin demonstrating a powerful spell for your judgement. Your time is precious and a little stage fright isn't needed here. You are only trying to help after all."</p><p>"Hmm." Odalia focused on Amity again. "Yes, very good Edric. Go on Amity, please don't keep me waiting."</p><p>The thought of '<em>that was odd' </em>overlapped with her confusion. She had been forbidden under threat of punishment to not use magic the whole time she was here but now Edric was telling her to cast something powerful and complex?</p><p>Odalia was quickly on her way to losing her patience if Amity was anyone to judge (and she was), so she gulped back her hesitations and decided to go for it. The instruction was to perform powerful magic; Edric had said it and his mother confirmed it. So she did.</p><p><em>I'll try to be flashy but not use too much magic, or I'll just be speeding up my own poisoning, </em>she thought to herself.</p><p>Amity took a deep, stabilizing breath to try and invigorate her tired body. She closed her eyes, raised her right arm and drew a fairly wide spellcircle in the air. A bright ring of light appeared on the floor and a large abomination began to claw its way out. She was fairly impressed with this one's execution actually... Its head would reach the ceiling once it was fully manifested but secretly the creature was largely hollow. Normally this would make it practically useless but in <em>this </em>case, it was genius! Odalia would have to believe she was suitably powerful enough!</p><p>"Stop immediately!" The horrible woman shouted crossly.</p><p>The command went through Amity like an electric shock and she tried to reign in the magic as it weaved the large body into existence.  It was already head, arms and chest out of the glowing ring of light and pushing it back in felt like the magical equivalent of what she expected swallowing one's own vomit would feel like.</p><p>"Stop, stop. I have already said that you are not to use magic. Did you not relay to her my instructions, Edric?" The elder witch watched her son's lips long enough for him to tonelessly reply, "Yes Mother, I did."</p><p>"But I'm doing what you asked just now! Edric said I had to do a powerful spell, you agreed! What else am I supposed to do?!" She was gasping and sweating from the effort of halting her spell halfway and panic was threatening to bring her to her knees. Odalia was shaking her head after the first several words and Amity could imagine that if the rest of her body were here she would be waving her hand in annoyance.</p><p>"As I feared, you clearly have done no preparations at all. Edric, please fetch your sister so that Amity may witness a proper example of a Hexhibition Gala presentation." Amity's heart sank, and she watched Edric helplessly as he shrugged at her and left the room.</p><p>An hour or so of sleep had done nothing to ease the soreness from her last encounter with Emira, although it did lessen the exhaustion-borne numbness in her mind regarding the cruel older witch. Now she could properly stew in her fear while she waited for whatever would come next.</p><p>Odalia was quiet and appeared almost serene, like she was in a trance. Amity glanced around the room nervously, making sure that, yes, the windows were still quite sealed off in here. She pinched and pulled at the fabric of her shirt near her belly and after a tortuously long several minutes Amity could hear no-nonsense footsteps approaching and flinched slightly with each one. Just before Emira breezed into the room Amity let slip a little whimper before she could stop it. Blessedly, Odalia didn't seem to notice.</p><p>The wretched older version of her sister stood at attention and regarded her mother coolly. Her lips moved briefly but Amity must have been too nervous to catch the words. Odalia was staring with rapt attention and spoke as soon as Emira stopped.</p><p>"Emira, it turns out that Amity is severely under-prepared for her Gala presentation. I would like you to conjure your best approximation of the atmosphere, guests and some part of your performance from last year so that Amity will have a clearer understanding of her assignment and the setting she will be in."</p><p>This time Amity was sure the older witch didn't actually say anything while she mouthed the words, "Yes Mother", and she shot Amity a look that was somewhere between pleased and haughty. She swallowed thickly and watched as Emira closed her eyes and took a moment to concentrate. Magical pressure was gathering in the air and if felt just a bit harder to breath.</p><p>Emira raised both her arms and drew several spellcircles in sequence. With each one an unreal image was bleeding out of them and Amity felt sick as her perception and balance were forced to change. The room appeared to be growing exponentially until they were standing in a large theatre hall and Amity was craning her neck to try and make sense of everything. Long dining tables, people and intricate sculptures were solidifying around them and the noise of crowds and cutlery and clinking wine glasses covered the previous silence of the little study room.</p><p><em>Calm down. Calm down, this is an illusion.</em> Amity looked over to see Odalia with a full body and wearing a formal dress. She had a decorative strand of jewels woven into her bun and a little sign on a post that seemed to sprout from the top of her head with an arrow pointing down and the word, 'tyrant' scrawled on it.</p><p>"My my, very acceptable, Emira. Very acceptable." Odalia admired her illusion body and then the younger, uncorrupted doppelganger of Emira in dress clothes that stood between her and the real Emira. The elder witch seemed to be enraptured by the visuals and atmosphere of the grand gathering and she looked almost pleasant while she inspected everything nearby from the doppelganger to the sculptures. She even scrutinized the tables.</p><p>Amity had a few seconds to appreciate the sheer extent to which Emira was able to command her senses before the implications of it began to literally stare her in the face.</p><p>More and more of the guests were turning to leer and glare at Amity. Some were sneering with disgusting looks of hunger she wasn't familiar with seeing outside of wild beasts. If Odalia noticed that the guests were swiftly morphing into horrible twisted versions of the sort of witches and demons she expected to see at a fancy party like this, she didn't care.</p><p>A looming witch bent far closer into Amity's personal space than she was comfortable with and she jolted away, dimly aware of a dull pain in her lower back that was likely her bumping into one of the study room desks which she couldn't see anymore. She heard the distinct sound of paper ripping and she looked towards the source just above her hip to see that she was wearing a dress made of crumbling old scroll paper with words like, "coward" and "worst sister ever" inked on it. There was a jagged tear from her sudden movement and she quickly slapped a hand over it to hide the pale skin it revealed.</p><p>Soothing hot anger enveloped her for a moment as the gorgeous doppelganger Emira strode over and Amity started to yell at her for conjuring up such terrible visuals. The older witch smirked as Amity realized she couldn't hear her own voice and it had nothing to do with the volume of the 'guests' around them.</p><p>"Yeah, let's just have you shut right the hell up while Mother and I enjoy all this, shall we?" She winked and sent Amity a winning grin. Some tall creature was inching in closer to Emira and watching her like a piece of meat, it actually <em>drooled</em> on the shoulder of her nice dress jacket. It was growling the words "merits... achievements... speak to me..." although Emira ignored it and surveyed the rest of her work with pride.</p><p>There were too many vile faces watching her, and Amity jerked away instinctively every time someone came too close. She kept stumbling into the invisible desks and adding to her bruises. Her fragile dress and leggings were ripping apart. She <em>knew</em> it wasn't real and none of these people were actually here and licking their lips at her but it didn't matter. It still felt awful.</p><p>
  <em>please oh please don't start crying, Amity you can do this just don't make it worse, bear with it and it will all be over soon</em>
</p><p>She stood still and closed her eyes, trying to block out the mob of creatures around her but Emira was thorough in her control. If Amity stopped looking, they touched. They whispered in her ear. She had to keep her eyes open.</p><p>The grand stage that stood on the far wall suddenly super-imposed over the people and tables near to them, replacing the scene of the mingling guests. The lights dimmed and it became very quiet. Amity was surrounded by seats and everyone around her, including the real Emira and Odalia, were sitting as though awaiting a show. She was the only one standing and the other seated guests chuckled meanly at her before she flushed and swiftly sat in her chair, cringing at the new rips in her paper dress.</p><p>This was a living nightmare. Amity sniffled and glared at Emira on the other side of the slimy guest between them. She wanted to wipe away the tears running down her cheeks but she couldn't pry her arms away from herself. She felt exposed enough.</p><p>Her attention was pulled towards the stage as the confident-looking younger Emira ascended and took center place. She appeared to be grandly addressing the audience with an introductory speech but all Amity could hear was random sounds like quacking and glass breaking.</p><p>She leant back a bit to look over the hunched figure beside her and past Emira to see what Odalia was doing. The horrid woman was watching the illusory version of her daughter with eager attention. The witch with slimy skin next to her sat up straighter and craned their neck around to grimace pointedly right in Amity's face and she snapped her attention forward immediately.</p><p>The Emira up on stage began casting fantastical illusions, very possibly an actual reproduction of her presentation. It wasn't scary or terrible, and some of the imagery would have been amazing if Amity hadn't been so overwhelmed.</p><p>It was a handful of minutes later when Emira's demonstration built into a marvelous finale that took enough of her concentration to let the outer parts of the hall begin to dissolve. Amity was facing the imagery up on stage but her eyes eagerly darted around to catch glimpses of the illusory walls and the creepy guests melting away or folding in on themselves.</p><p>Soon only the stage and a few rows of seats were still clearly visible and the illusory Emira was giving a profound-looking closing statement if you ignored the terrible bawling that didn't match her lip movements. Something was hovering behind Amity and breathing raggedly over her, causing her to shrink into her chair ever more. She swore she only closed her eyes for a moment's respite but when she opened them again she was on the stage in her little chair and her ragged clothing and <em>everyone was watching her-</em></p><p>"Don't look at me!" She shrieked, and all of her hard-earned endurance was tossed out the window like she so much wanted to be. The illusion then shattered and she fell through the chair to be dumped onto the floor of the children's study room.</p><p>Odalia's head was scowling down at her and Emira looked very pleased with herself. The only sounds were the ticking clock on the wall and Amity's pathetic whimpering.</p><p>"Don't... don't look at me please.." She covered her wet face, hoping to put off the inevitable for a few more seconds. She'd completely panicked and broken down and now Odalia was going to lecture her even more.</p><p>She heard a raspy sigh, like seeing a terrified witchling was just <em>so inconvenient</em>.</p><p>"Emira dear, exemplary work." The elder witch's voice was clipped and business-like. " I'm sorry to task you further with your sister's short-comings but she clearly needs an astounding amount of assistance with handling the pressure of her responsibilities."</p><p>Amity's heart couldn't possibly beat any harder or it would explode.</p><p>"Please educate and divorce her of this frail image she is so keen on. I'm tired of this frightened little girl act. A Blight shows no weakness."</p><p>The room was quiet again save for the clock and the blood rushing in her ears. Odalia's lack of further nasty comments must have meant she left, and as if to confirm it she heard soft footsteps and the door closing. Amity peeked over her hands to see Emira's fingertips resting lightly on the doorknob.</p><p>As the other witch turned to face her she looked positively <em>delighted</em>.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Willow's House - 12:12 am</p><p> </p><p>The 'ultimatum' they had been given was that they could keep searching for Amity and Blight so long as they didn't bother anyone. Or go anywhere. Or involve literally anyone else in the search.</p><p>That's how Luz interpreted it anyways.</p><p>Gus had looked so conflicted and guilty when he left the big council room; He was forced to resume his duties and was 'under investigation'. Noceda was told to deliver a 'cease-action order' to Willow on behalf of the council in lieu of a bunch of armed soldiers, but apparently both of them took the order as blatant challenge.</p><p> </p><p>"They're fucking hiding something, those sneaky cowards." Noceda gnawed on some bread and her leg was jumping while she sat and stewed. She and Luz had been going non-stop now since lunch and exhaustion was catching up with them both. It had taken her a while to get Noceda to even consider food.</p><p>"They're paranoid." Willow growled lightly through her many plants. "Those idiots on the council are just using this as an excuse to go after me. Unfortunately Gus made it very easy for them."</p><p>Where Luz had found the corrupted witch to be eerie and unsettling before, now she just thought of her as quirky. And perhaps a bit murderous at times, but in a good way.</p><p>
  <em>Did she really just think that?</em>
</p><p>Owlbert suddenly shot into the huge multi-floored room and circled widely while he got his bearings. When the little palisman spotted Noceda he landed on her shoulder and presented a wrapped scroll which she eagerly took and opened.</p><p>Luz crowded over while the older teen scanned the message with bloodshot eyes and then she jumped to her feet with a whoop of relief!</p><p>"What is it? Are they going to help us?" Luz asked and took the brief one-armed hug as a good sign.</p><p>"Yeah! Willow, your merc contacts are in. Thanks so much! I know that has to be pricey." Noceda was quickly snatching up her stuff and Luz followed suit. It looks like they were finally ready to make their move!</p><p>"Don't worry about that now. Did they say where your meet-up spot would be?"</p><p>Noceda had paced back far enough to look up at Willow with a tired half-smile and nodded. Luz stuffed the last of her fresh glyphs in her bag along with some interesting gifts from the plant witch to use during their next step.</p><p>"Good. I'll be waiting for you to reach the wall in the market. Make sure you're directly south of Viney's clinic." Willow said with detectable excitement. "Not to jinx you or anything, but I'm working on a backup plan in case we need it. If it looks really bad in South though, come back, okay? You're no use to Blight if you get killed trying to find her."</p><p>Noceda confirmed both the instructions and the warnings and she thanked her friend before taking off down the plant tunnel-hallway. Luz craned her neck to look up at Willow and focused on those glowing green eyes of hers.</p><p>"Thanks Willow. You're a good friend!"</p><p>Luz couldn't possibly have seen the way the witch's eyebrows rose from way down on the ground level, but the tiny movement spurred on by atrophied muscles belied her usual stoicism.</p><p>She did think she heard a whispered, "thank you", as she ran after Noceda though.</p><p> </p><p>Viney's clinic was busy as always, even this late at night (or was it early in the morning?.. whatever), but somewhere among the throng of witches and demons seeking medical attention would be some people who were there for a very different reason.</p><p>With the help of the streetlamps around them, Luz spotted a squat demon looking right at her, and she smiled hopefully at them. They nudged another demon standing next to them facing a different direction and then they both disappeared among the small crowd.</p><p>She poked Noceda and leaned up to loud-whisper in her ear over the general hubbub. "I think I saw them."</p><p>The older teen looked around and then leaned down to whisper back, "You're sure?" Luz nodded. She was pretty sure.</p><p>The two of them casually left the crowd and carefully walked along the shadowy rows of paddocks and pens that took up the whole area behind the clinic. Eventually they reached the towering wall of twisting plants and metal that separated the market from the south residential area of Bonesborough.</p><p>Luz wasn't entirely sure what was supposed to happen for this part, so she watched as Noceda glanced around, looking a little worried that they were alone still. After a moment she took a deep breath and turned to the wall, rapping on the side of a vine like one would knock on a door.</p><p>About eight feet to their left, the vines and metal began to shift. It was so dark back here that it was easier to listen for it than see it even with the help of their tiny glyph light each. A small doorway made of specifically-placed materials opened in the thick wall.</p><p>Several figures appeared out of the gloom, including the squat demon Luz had seen. They were all wearing wooden masks.</p><p>"You weren't followed?" The demon asked. He looked like the leader of their little group.</p><p>"We were careful. Let's go." Noceda replied and ducked through the opening in the wall. Luz watched the demon long enough to see him nod at the other demon and two witches with them and she followed Noceda.</p><p>Once their group was on the other side of the wall, the hole closed up without fanfare. The four strangers removed their masks and the taller of the two demons eyed Luz's glyph light with some distaste.</p><p>"Those are going to act like beacons if you keep them that bright." She monotoned.</p><p>"Yeah, well we need them to see. Which way from here?" Noceda replied, but she picked the floating light out of the air and held it in her cupped hand so that it mainly shone on the ground in front of her. Luz copied the motion and was surprised to find out that the light wasn't actually hot, but it did feel like it was pulsing. One of the witches pointed to her left and they all began heading in that direction, quietly.</p><p>After their disastrous head-on attempt to get to the house Blight grew up in, the new plan needed to involve more round-about tactics.</p><p>Luz tried to pay attention to where she was stepping. There was a lot more debris out here. She could faintly make out the shapes of houses and other buildings that made up the south residential area but the lack of streetlights, people walking around and noise made the whole experience pretty freaky. This felt a lot like the town they were in when they met the first pig demon, and the screaming witch.</p><p>It occurred to Luz just then that she had been warned they might run into violent corrupted Bonesborough citizens out here, but since they were outside the wall couldn't they run into pig demons too?</p><p>She watched Noceda's back for a moment. The older teen might still be bothered enough by them to freeze up, and it would be up to Luz to fight them off by herself. The idea gave her chills.</p><p>"Hoo."</p><p>Owlbert was looking at her from his place on the staff. Perhaps he could feel her anxiety through her tight grip. She relaxed her fingers and smiled appreciatively at him, and then looked around her at the four nameless mercenaries travelling silently with them.</p><p>She and Noceda weren't doing this alone. They had help. They had a plan. They were going to investigate Blight's old home and nothing was going to stop them.</p><p>
  <em>I'm coming, Amity. Just hold on a bit longer!</em>
</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Blight Manor - 6:02 am</p><p> </p><p>If the fresh rays coming from the study room windows were any indication, it was probably early morning. She hadn't been allowed to perceive anything Emira didn't want her to until recently, so it was nice to see something real and finally have a sense of time.</p><p>"Let's see then." Odalia nodded to Emira who stood beside her suspended head. "I expect to see marked improvement in Amity's ability to handle her duties, for both of your sakes."</p><p>Emira nodded back and rose trembling hands to scratch out some spellcircles. Somewhere deep inside, past the haunted look and mental static, Amity was happy to see the older witch unable to hide the effort it took to keep casting.</p><p>The floor fell away, leaving Odalia's head and Emira floating in midair thousands of feet above a yawning chasm and Amity on a tightrope that seemed to run off for miles. She spread her tired arms and adjusted herself against the wind so that she balanced on the thin line, ignoring the internal screaming that she was going to fall off and die.</p><p>Odalia's voice came through clearly despite her apparent distance away. "Take a few steps child, come on now."</p><p>Amity rose one shaking foot and carefully placed it in front of the other. She had to spin her left arm wildly to prevent tipping off to the side and go plunging to her death. A couple more times she let herself stand with only one little foot on the wire and the other trying to reach its mark just several inches ahead.</p><p>The line broke.</p><p>Her stomach clenched so hard, aggravating the bruising on the inside and out and she tensed every muscle in her body. She was allowed to close her eyes when she fell, though it didn't make it feel any less intense. It kind of made it worse each time she'd hit the ground. Maybe that's why Emira let her do it in the first place.</p><p>Mercifully, or perhaps the older witch just didn't have enough juice left to trick her pain receptors any more, she stopped falling without the expected impact. She just.. wasn't falling anymore.</p><p>She opened her burning eyes and one of Emira's spellcircles crumbled apart. Two more to go.</p><p>It was dark now. Some approximation of a spooky old forest with gnarled trees and faces made of bark. Softly glowing mist swirled around her calves and Odalia idly commented on the realistic atmosphere.</p><p>Some ghastly spectre approached her. Amity didn't care. She knew she was vocalizing in some way but as long as she didn't open her mouth then Mother wouldn't know. She couldn't hear it.</p><p>She blocked out what its face looked like. That sometimes helped. It paced around her in a circle, jerking spastically for a blink or two every thirty seconds while it closed in tighter and tighter. She stared straight ahead as the thing loomed over her, brushed against her, poked and prodded her skin. Everywhere it touched went numb.</p><p>
  <em>Still has some control left over sensations. Noted. Maybe she won't catch me off guard since I can tell.</em>
</p><p>The eerie being may have grinned at her before Emira's second spellcircle crumbled into glittering dust and Amity was suddenly on the same grand stage that Emira had performed on.</p><p>
  <em>One more. I guess this is the finale.</em>
</p><p>She tried to look over the heads of the seated audience. That way she appeared to be facing them but she wasn't actually seeing anyone. Emira must have caught on to her little ploy as the necks of many of them stretched up to meet her gaze.</p><p>Long seconds went by. If she was supposed to do something specific up here then she was done for. Had they practiced some sort of act and she'd forgotten her part? Murmurs met her ears and she felt shame creep into her heart and mind. She hoped it didn't show on her face.</p><p>She looked at Emira questioningly. She was giving no indication of what to do. Amity tried very hard to be patient and ready for anything to pop up and hurt her.</p><p>The urge to scratch at her arms and neck were awful. All of the numb spots were tingly and itching and pinchy.</p><p>She chanced a look at Odalia and hoped it wouldn't come across as nervous or fidgety. Depending on what her face was doing maybe she'd look almost challenging. The elder witch was watching her curiously and Amity was so thankful for her patience.</p><p>The itchy spots were beginning to swell and sting. Pretty quickly she could feel things squirming under the skin. <em>So that's where this was headed, </em>she thought while her stomach twisted into knots. It was a blessing to be so past physical and mental exhaustion to be able to keep all the screaming inside. Can't show the fear.</p><p>Heh, she was compartmentalizing abject horror.</p><p>Motion from Emira gave Amity the hint she needed to finish the show how the older witch intended. She faced the audience and stood as straight and tall as her wrecked muscles would allow.</p><p>With extreme difficulty she spread her shaking arms like she was to embrace the countless soulless faceless people viewing her and she refused to look at whatever the things that were burrowing out of her flesh were. They were hitting the ground with gross squelching noises.</p><p>When she was sure that the last ones had emerged and tumbled out of her she took a bow. She was crying again, somehow, but at least she couldn't clearly make out the little figures on the floor as they scuttled away. She could hear subdued clapping from the audience. It was over. It was finally over. It <strong>had</strong> to be over.</p><p>Emira's last spellcircle fizzled out and the children's study room hazed back into existence. Amity lowered her arms gratefully but she wasn't confident enough to take so much as a step. Odalia was gracious enough to come to her so she could be inspected.</p><p>Amity could feel the wet, stinging paths her tears had been making and she knew her bottom lip was trembling pretty badly. Well, every part of her was trembling pretty badly but Odalia was focusing on her face so she kept it together there the most. She wasn't so worried about the uninterrupted whine at the back of her throat that threatened to become sobbing at any second. Odalia couldn't hear it.</p><p>
  <em>bear with it just a little longer.</em>
</p><p>The elder witch pursed her lips in a reluctantly satisfied type of expression that made Amity want to smile and throw up at the same time.</p><p>"Better, though you still have a ways to go." She said calmly and sniffed delicately. "I expect to see progress on your presentation next time. Now get ready for school, Amity. A Blight is never tardy."</p><p>Her head whipped around, flinging her fleshy string of a neck as one might flourish a fluffy boa or luxurious long hair. She exited the room and Amity fell to her knees like her strings had been cut.</p><p>Hurt. Oh Titan did she hurt.</p><p>Her arms lay uselessly at her sides. They were bruised and there were some cuts. There were no holes where things had dug themselves out of her or splintered bones showing or screaming faces or melting hands but <em>she remembered</em> and that was enough. There was no part of her that didn't have a whole new history and she never wanted to look in a mirror and see what that would mean.</p><p>
  <em>What is Luz going to think if she sees me like this?</em>
</p><p>That did it. She let herself fall and her forehead impacted with the wooden floor hard enough to feel it all the way down her spine. She curled her arms around her head to block the dim light out and the burning tears in. She was broken and ugly and weak and there was no way Luz would want her anymore. If she ever did.</p><p>Emira had the decency to be tired enough to let Amity stay there on the floor and cry for some time. Too soon though she felt a foot prodding at her. It would only get rougher if she ignored it so she pushed herself into a sitting position and just pleaded silently up at the other witch. She was so tired.</p><p>Something caught Emira's attention and it took a few seconds for Amity to register it as well. She could hear someone running and then Blight's voice called out, <em>"I'm not drinking any more of that shit!" </em> A dangerous blankness bled into Emira's expression and she moved away from Amity to get ready in front of the open door. She bobbed on the balls of her feet eagerly.</p><p>Just as Blight streaked by, Emira charged out and body-slammed her against the opposite wall of the hallway. The painting of Standen Blight Jr. that hung there came off its hanger and crashed over the two of them, quickly thrown off by Emira to land broken on the floor.</p><p>Barely inside her field of view from where Amity kneeled, she could see Edric stop just short of his sisters and he hunched over to catch his breath. He was holding a closed thermos.</p><p>Amity couldn't do anything other than watch as Emira snatched the thermos from Edric and motioned with irritation at Blight (who was dazed and struggling to stand after her impact with the wall). Edric panted an exasperated, "Okay, okay", and he helped Blight stand up and then restrained her. She was swearing and muttering and she was quickly getting her faculties back while Emira opened the thermos and poured a frothy greyish liquid into the lid-cup. She took a few gulps and wiped the residue off her lips, then seemed to shudder with an energized little tremor.</p><p>She refilled the cup and placed the thermos on the floor out of the way. Amity wanted to say, "leave her alone" but she couldn't form words anymore. Emira then grabbed Blight by the jaw and tried to make her drink whatever the grey potion was, but she spit the first mouthful back into her sister's face.</p><p>Even facing away from her Amity could tell that Emira was glaring daggers. Edric said something like, "In case you didn't catch it, she said 'you're going to pay for that', baby sister ", from his place behind Blight.</p><p>Emira spun around, cup still in hand, and stalked over to Amity. She didn't have the energy left to so much as sob, and so Emira was basically carry-dragging her over to where Blight was in the hall. She was forced to stand right in front of her older counterpart while Emira held her up by the jaw from behind. She held on to Emira's arm to try and lessen the strain on her neck.</p><p>The awful expression Blight made as she looked at Amity was enough to break her own heart. She must have looked as bad as she felt, and Blight looked terrible too but Amity didn't have the capacity left to express her empathy.</p><p>The cup of grey liquid was placed under Amity's nose and so very close to her lips. She longed for the liquid, whatever it was. Anything was better than the arid hell her mouth and throat had become without anything to drink since yesterday during 'snack time'.</p><p>"Don't... you, fucking... bitch. Don't make, her.. drink that.." Blight growled and bared her teeth, but all of the tired fury in her eyes was directed over Amity's head to the witch holding her up.</p><p>Emira held the cup out to Blight's lips instead and she reluctantly choked it down, all the while glaring hatefully.</p><p>As the hand holding her up fell away Amity immediately began to stumble and once again she was on the floor. The images of the hallway and the three witches standing close by were wavering and doubling over themselves. Blight wrenched out of Edric's grasp and she was calling the other two monsters. Saying Odalia broke them.</p><p>There was a brief motion that Amity more heard than saw, but she was still vaguely aware of Emira pinning Blight to the wall and possibly mouthing words at her since their faces were so close. She heard Blight hiss in reply, "What could you possibly tell her that would make this worse?"</p><p>Amity passed out then, wondering how Blight still had the energy to tempt fate like that.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Bonesborough Coliseum - 5:18 am</p><p> </p><p>Something screamed in the distance again. Luz groaned and turned onto her other side and tried to ignore it.</p><p>The sounds of other people breathing or talking quietly bothered her. The headache pounding behind her eyes bothered her. The hunger and exhaustion of running around and being highly stressed for something like eighteen hours without pause bothered her.</p><p>Not having Amity in her arms bothered her.</p><p>She wiped at the side of her nose to somewhat disguise her sniffling. The mercenaries who were promised some bountiful reward from Willow weren't outright rude or anything, but they were subtly judgemental. They didn't think much of the two humans they were tasked with escorting to Blight Manor.</p><p>Blight Manor. <em>Blight Manor. </em>What a terrible, cold sort of name.</p><p>The only place that Amity had grown up in but didn't feel like she was welcome.</p><p>
  <em>"Are you... not happy when you're home?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Not really."</em>
</p><p>Somewhere behind her Noceda moaned lowly in her sleep. Luz figured that it had been a few hours since she applied the last healing glyph and she was already awake, so..</p><p>
  <em>"You sure you're not cold?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Fine, get in here. But no more tickling!" </em>
</p><p>Amity was so warm. Not just like a heat kind of warm, but like... a warmth that you feel in your soul. And now she felt like the shivers went that deep too.</p><p>Luz pulled out a glyph and shuffled on her knees to where Noceda lay on the floor of the Coliseum lobby. Her ankle still looked swollen and angry. It seemed a little better after she applied the glyph. The older teen wasn't groaning in her sleep anymore.</p><p>
  <em>"Hey Amity, have you had breakfast yet?"</em>
</p><p>Dangit. Her eyes were welling up again. How was she supposed to stay hopeful and confident when the bad thoughts kept taking up so much space in her head?</p><p>
  <em>"We're supposed to be finding a way home Luz."</em>
</p><p>Amity was afraid that they would get hurt. Luz didn't take her concern seriously enough. They had argued, parted for a little while, and now Amity was missing.</p><p>This was <em>her</em> fault. When they find Amity and if she's not okay, then it's all Luz's fault.</p><p>
  <em>"Oh you don't get it!"</em>
</p><p>She didn't. She really didn't. And yet Amity cared about her, somehow.  Silly, awkward, <em>selfish</em>  little Luz but Amity cared about her and that hadn't been enough to make the wonderful witch her first and only priority.</p><p>They needed to go home. No side-quests, no heroics, no unfortunate consequences.</p><p>Luz gathered her abandoned-jacket-pillow under her head and curled up again. She rubbed her tired eyes and told each part of her body in sequence to go to sleep. It was hard to shut off when she felt so urgently needed.</p><p>
  <em>Just an hour or so. Just enough to not keel over and hurt yourself. Noceda said they would move out the moment she could limp.</em>
</p><p>Luz had never seen her older counterpart so angry as when she'd stumbled, exhausted, in the dark, and wrenched something important in her ankle. The wailing and wobbling people out here hadn't even been attacking them yet. When they finally did though, she and Noceda had to rely on their hired help to fight the poor insane enemies and find a safe place to rest.</p><p> </p><p>Luz wasn't entirely sure if she fell asleep, but there was a slight wash of colour reaching through the huge lobby windows and that told her they should be moving by now. She got to her feet and stretched out a little bit of the stiffness that came from lying down on a floor for some hours. Noceda did more or less the same thing after Luz jostled her shoulder to wake her up, except that she winced and hissed because of the pain she was still in.</p><p>"Do another healing glyph, then let's keep going. I've held us up enough as it is." She said curtly. She had a look in her eyes that Luz knew very well meant she was viciously beating herself up inside her own head.</p><p>"You sure you want to continue?" Asked the stocky demon who led their search and rescue effort. Luz still didn't know his name. "It might be wiser to retreat and come back fully healed and rested. At this rate you humans are going to need more help than the witches you're looking for."</p><p>"I'm fine. Let's go already." Noceda snapped.</p><p>"Alright. You got spunk kid, I'll give you that." The demon replied and pulled a wooden mask on to conceal his face. The others did the same thing.</p><p>Leaving the relative shelter of the coliseum and continuing through the increasingly woodsy area of south-east Bonesborough was far less daunting with faint morning light to reveal much of the detail around them. It was also easier to spot and avoid aggressive ex-Bonesborough citizens, although the closer they got to their destination the fewer of those they saw.</p><p>It was helpful for their pace, but extra worrisome over all.</p><p> </p><p>Luz had never actually seen Amity's house. When they finally reached it, she thought it looked more like a castle complete with standing atop its own hill even. Right away she was able to confirm a few things;</p><p>Firstly, the grand gates proudly declared 'Blight Manor", so they were definitely in the right place.</p><p>Secondly, someone actively hunted the corrupted people in the area because there was a small mountain of corpses just far enough away from the building to perhaps not stink it up. Maybe it was more accurate to call it a pallet of corpses actually. They were lined and stacked quite neatly according to general body structure.</p><p>Thirdly, there were at least a dozen or more HGA members, guards, and likely some mercenary fighters surrounding the building, and they certainly didn't look like they were investigating for missing persons.</p><p>Also they were aware that they had visitors.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Blight Manor - 8:06 am</p><p> </p><p>Amity had no idea how long she had been passed out for, but she was wide awake and off the couch within seconds of hearing Blight raising all hell somewhere else in the house.</p><p>She was in Father's study and the noise was coming from the ground floor. She ran out the door, not really registering that someone else had been in the room with her.</p><p>Flying down the stairs and taking a sharp right, Amity could see the visuals matched the audio as the west living room had been turned into a veritable battlefield. Furniture was knocked over, some things were on fire, and there were two exploded remains of abominations.</p><p>"Yes!" Blight hissed when she saw her, and Amity had to clamp down on her flight reflex when the older witch rushed over and stood next to her against the angry-looking Emira. She had an open flame hovering above her palm and a crazed look in her eyes.</p><p>"Amity Blight settle down this instant!" Odalia screeched from the where she was seated. Edric had pulled her large chair flat up against the wall and was standing defensively in front of her in case Blight got too close. She couldn't tell if his expression was amused or concerned.</p><p>"Go right, I'll take left." Blight hissed, then stalked away from her in an arc. Emira followed her movements with her eyes and Amity hesitated a few seconds before she began doing the same thing but in the opposite direction.</p><p>With both of them on the move Emira flicked her gaze between them, but then quickly disregarded Amity. She lunged forward to bodily attack Blight but got a dousing of fire for her troubles and had to back off again. Why wouldn't she just block it with a force shield?</p><p>The realization struck Amity like a bolt of lightning. <em>She must be nearly out of magic! This is our chance!</em></p><p>Odalia was shouting crossly at one or both of them again but Amity focused in on the witch who had tormented her all night. If she and Blight worked together, perhaps they could bring her down. She had to watch out for any moves Edric might make though, even if he didn't look particularly battle-inclined.</p><p>Amity spun up a handful of fire for herself which caught Emira's attention, and made her glare straight into Amity's soul. She froze up immediately but the momentary distraction was all Blight needed to call forth another abomination to come crawling out of the floor.</p><p>A rapid sequence of events unfolded, and Amity was astounded that she could keep up with them in her condition.</p><p>The abomination charged at Emira (crashing through an end table as it did) and she leapt into the air to punch it in the head. Blight was on her in seconds, but Edric's force rope would have gotten to her first and yanked her off balance if Amity hadn't dashed in and tangled herself in it instead.</p><p>She could hear Emira's breathy hissing and Blight snarling behind her, they were wrestling on the other side of the headless abomination now. Amity tried to squirm out of the force rope and Edric actually chuckled at her, but then Blight's abomination (with regrowing head) leaned right over her much smaller form and grasped the rope in its goopy paws. Edric hadn't expected the powerful yank and stumbled forward, off balance and within striking distance.</p><p>"Amity, stop using your magic immediately!" Odalia yelled furiously at her just as she won the internal debate to clock Edric in the head with a fireball. She hated that the command gave her pause but the lumbering body that thoughtlessly nudged her aside and bent over to envelope Edric snapped her out if it.</p><p>Amity looked at Odalia, angrier than she had ever seen her or her own mother and huffing while her ruined body shuddered and jerked in the chair.</p><p>"Kill her! Do it!" Blight yelled, she was barely managing to keep her hold on Emira and the older sister's face was <em>murderous.</em></p><p><em>I have to... kill her..?</em> Amity's hand shuddered violently, making her flame waver and Odalia's neck began stretching up so she loomed further and further over her.</p><p>"Put. That. Out. <em>Now</em>."</p><p>Those eyes were so terrible. Her voice was so horrible. The power Odalia commanded went deeper than magic.</p><p>Amity felt like she was sinking into the floor.</p><p>
  <em>Oh no.. I can't do it.</em>
</p><p>Heavy steps brought a stifling silence into the room with them as Alador entered and surveyed the scene.</p><p>With a moment of only laboured breathing and Edric grunting under the weight of the abomination draped all over him, Amity suddenly became aware of noise that wasn't in the room with them. Shouting. <em>Lots</em> of shouting. There were people outside and near the house!</p><p>The burst of desperate hope gave her the courage to run for the window and peer out past a parting in the threateningly glowing curtains, and sure enough there was the makings of a scuffle going on out there.</p><p><em>She saw Luz!  </em>Luz was here and she had Owlbert with her and they looked ready to take on the entire world!</p><p>"Blight! They're here! We can do this!" She gasped, and the older witch responded with a fiercely determined snarl.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>"Let us take a look and we'll have no trouble!" Noceda shouted angrily. Even with a tender ankle she was going to mow these chumps down if they didn't back off!</p><p>"Desist with this attack! You have no proof implicating the Blight family with your accusations and you are disobeying the Council's orders to leave them at peace!" A tall HGA member sternly replied. He didn't look like much of a fighter but the two witches flanking him sure did.</p><p>"Come on fellas, no need to turn this into a whole thing." Their squat demon companion purred cordially at the agitated defenders from behind his mask. "Why don't we just let the humans take a peek around and then we'll be off, no problems."</p><p>"Mercenary scum." One of the witches in armour growled, although her comment did draw a cross glance or two from the mercenaries she was allied with.</p><p>Noceda quickly took tally of their opposition now that she had had a chance to see and hear them up close. By her estimates there were six Bonesborough guards, four hard-eyed mercenaries with miss-matched armour and at least two of the remaining three didn't look like they could fight their way out of a paper bag. Not that appearances would tell her much about their magical prowess though. She favoured her odds of taking those ones out with a single high-velocity greeting to the cranium, regardless.</p><p>Out of the corner of her eye, Noceda saw Luz stamp the end of Eda's staff against the ground and some pretty gnarly-looking plant <em>things</em> started growing out of the long purple seeds in her hand. The younger teen was just as done with negotiations as Noceda was.</p><p>"Well, we tried asking nicely." She growled, and there were suddenly a lot more spellcircles and swords being brandished.</p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>"Alador, dear, we seem to have some unwanted guests." Odalia said in a serene tone, like she hadn't just been burying Amity into the ground with her eyes.</p><p>Amity turned just in time to see Blight let go of Emira and sucker punch her in side of the head. She was stunned for a few seconds but that gave Blight the chance to charge towards Alador. Whatever she was going to do looked like it would be with lethal intent.</p><p>She was met half-way across the room. Amity hadn't even registered him moving but then Alador's long fingers were wrapped around Blight's head and part of her face in a bruising grip. His other hand was drawing a spellcircle in the air.</p><p>The noise Blight made as her father violently ripped the magic out of her was like listening to a scream in reverse. Somewhere under all the blank terror, Amity wondered if Lilith had felt like that when Eda drained her of magic during their final experiment.</p><p>A flinching pink orb hovered just above Alador's outstretched fingertips and he let go of Blight so she could come crashing down on her knees. He didn't even look at Amity before calmly adjusting the sword and sheath on his belt and then left the room. She heard the front door open, and then close.</p><p>The abomination that had been partially smothering Edric lost its shape and melted all over the floor, leaving him standing there with an annoyed look and goo dripping off him in sheets. Odalia tsked at the sight and she stretched her neck to glare disapprovingly around the room.</p><p>"What an incredible mess. Your father is going to be furious." She muttered, although it was hard to tell who she was speaking to exactly. Perhaps all of them.</p><p><em>Luz is right outside. </em>Calm down.<em> Luz is right outside and she's going to save us. </em></p><p>Amity chanted the words in her head and she tried to break through the mental fog that threatened to completely overwhelm her. She was vaguely aware of Emira pulling herself to her feet and marching into the middle of the living room so she could get Odalia's attention.</p><p>She was mouthing something to her mother, but of course Amity had no idea what she was saying. The woman's face went livid, and she barked at Emira to stand Blight up. She yanked her younger sister upright and faced her at Odalia so she could hover in closely and speak in a slow, chilling tone.</p><p>"Your sister has just informed me that you are having <em>relations</em> with that human girl. <strong>Is this true?</strong>"</p><p>With Blight muttering curses under her breath and still trying to come to her senses, Odalia seemed to decide that extracting an answer from her was taking too long. In a swift movement that would not be uncommon of a snake striking, she was almost nose-to-nose with Amity.</p><p>"Are you. <em>Fornicating.</em> With. A. <em>Human.</em>"</p><p>She was too close. She was too close and the perfumes couldn't hide the smell of rot and <em>oh Titan</em> <em>she's going to rip my throat out with her teeth and I'm panicking and I can't do that because I'll get punished again oh no don't cry don't cry don't cry-</em></p><p>Whatever her face was doing was taken as a damning admission of guilt. The little colour that had been left in Odalia's disgusted face drained out of it and she withdrew her head to perch high above everything else in the room and took a moment to compose herself.</p><p>It was quiet. Too quiet.</p><p>Amity couldn't hear shouting anymore. No whoosh of magic or clanging of swords. What happened to the heroic battle outside that was going to save them? Where was her fearless champion?</p><p>
  <em>Luz please... I need you so badly.</em>
</p><p>Odalia drew a rattling breath, and then brought her head back down to a more normal height to finally address her various children and captives.</p><p>"I tolerate an awful lot of your silliness, Amity." She spoke quietly and leered at no one in particular. She seemed beyond angry. It was a tranquil sort of fury. Amity couldn't help but curl her hands protectively over her collarbone, anything to provide some barrier between her and the monster swaying in place.</p><p>"Edric. Emira." Odalia spoke and both witches couldn't have snapped more to attention than they already were. Even Emira's angry grin had disappeared when she saw her mother's demeanor freeze over. "Please make sure your little sister takes her potion. Then put her back in time-out. I need to go lay down for a while."</p><p>Amity could hear Blight cursing more coherently now, and she began to struggle in Emira's grip. Where was she getting the willpower from? Why didn't Amity have more of that? How come couldn't she fight harder against this madness?</p><p>"Also.. put the rest of Grometheus in with her. We are going to stamp this out at once."</p><p><em>What?  </em>Did she just hear what she thought she heard?</p><p>"Amity dear."</p><p> She almost snapped her neck with the speed in which she focused on the monstrous woman's face.</p><p>"Did I not tell you to get ready for school? We will take up this human-nonsense with your father when he gets home."</p><p>It was with a sort of unreal floating sensation that Amity drifted out of the living room and followed the sounds of Blight being wrestled up the stairs. Edric had disappeared in another direction. She didn't know or care where he'd gone. She just wanted to go to her room and wait for Luz there. She would be breaking down the door any moment now. Amity didn't want to hear Odalia's angry voice when she did.</p><p>They were upstairs now. There was no slivers of natural light up here, just the one bright glare that shone on the door to the old nursery.</p><p>Emira was forcing Blight to drink more of the rejuvenation elixir. Amity walked past them a few steps, intent as she was on reaching her room. But she stopped and turned towards them. She couldn't help save Blight, but maybe she could comfort her.</p><p>"Blight... don't worry, okay? Luz is outside. She's going to save us. Just hold on a little longer." She may have been whispering it.</p><p>A few more steps. She was so close to her room, so close to the door that would give her some peace. She stopped and turned when Edric loped up the stairs with two large levitating glass jugs. They were filled entirely with something black. The sight of them made Blight go ashen and choke on her last gulp of grey potion.</p><p>"Looks like you get to play with all three jars just like Emira did." Edric intoned. He had that empty expression on again, like he was letting someone else run his body for him.</p><p>He grasped and turned the handle to the nursery, and the door opened with a yawning sort of pull that made Amity want to run and never stop. The floating jugs bobbed and twirled lightly through the air and the black goop inside got more agitated as it passed under the lamp light.</p><p>Blight stared in mute horror at the last one to go through the doorway. A tanned hand pressed up against the glass from inside, smearing the black slop between tense fingers.</p><p>The silence broke as Emira began to shove Blight in the room, and the powerful, unyielding, sometimes wrathful witch that Amity had come to know Blight to be was reduced to a scared little girl.</p><p>"No.. <strong>No!</strong>" Blight pleaded desperately, grabbing at Emira's arms and trying to catch her leg on the doorframe. "Don't put me back in there, I don't want to go in there, Emira! Edric! <em>Please!"</em></p><p>She was peeled off of her last holds and pushed through, then Emira shut the door. A few seconds went by and the sound of the doorknob jiggling from the other side was loud enough for Amity to hear it halfway down the hall.</p><p>Emira glanced at her brother with an unreadable look, and then she made for the stairs, descending out of sight. Edric drew in a deep breath for a sigh and closed up the thermos on the ground to be left against the wall and out of the way. He stepped tiredly towards Amity.</p><p>"What was Mother's last instruction to you?" He asked.</p><p>She was.. so spent. Her hair plastered uncomfortably to her forehead. She wanted water so badly.</p><p>"... school. I have to.. get ready for.. school."</p><p>Edric guided her to turn around and gently herded her the rest of the way towards her room. She didn't know whether to panic, freeze up, or lie on the floor and cry when she heard horrible wailing coming from the nursery.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p>Six against thirteen may not have been the greatest of odds, but where the HGA group were just doing as they were told, Luz felt their side had far more conviction.</p><p>The mercenaries that Willow had hired for them seemed to be well-promised enough to have few qualms with using their magic, and their eager displays of power did seem to give pause to their enemies.</p><p>It wasn't enough to persuade them to back down though. Luz felt adrenaline surging through her and making her hands shake as the demons and witches standing between them and the magnificently ominous house brandished weapons, spells, artifacts, and <em>was that guy holding lightening</em>?</p><p>The curling mass of fuzzy purple-and-green flower stalks that somehow didn't pin her hand to the earth with their weight kept Luz from feeling afraid of the impending fight. In fact, she felt <em>damned determined</em>. She and Noceda both had a bad feeling about the Blight house and they were <em>going</em> to investigate. Even if Amity wasn't here, maybe her siblings or parents would want to help look for them?</p><p>Only one way to find out.</p><p>She licked her chapped lips and the five greenish bulbs high above her head opened to reveal hissing and snapping maws. The seeds Willow gave her were so ready to maul she didn't even have to mentally direct the violet flowerheads to flare intimidatingly.</p><p>"Final warning!" Someone shouted.</p><p>"Back at you!" Noceda spat.</p><p>The front door opened.</p><p>A tall man with brown hair and- <em>oh my god what is going on with his face?!</em></p><p>Luz took an involuntary step back as the man who she assumed was Blight's father stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him. Above his raised palm swirled a sickly-looking pink ball of light.</p><p>"That could be a problem." Luz heard one of the witches close by murmur, although thankfully the snarling flowerheads above her vehemently disagreed which made her feel better. The man looked in her direction and even though the idea of speaking to him twisted her stomach up in knots, she doubled down.</p><p>"Hey!" He might be looking her right in the eye now. It was hard to tell. "We're looking for Amity! And... um.. a second Amity!"</p><p>He didn't respond.</p><p>"I hope you don't mind, but we're going to check and see if they came here." She narrowed her eyes at him. Even if he was Amity's dad, or well, Blight's da- <em>whatever!</em> - he wasn't going to stop her.</p><p>The man raised the arm holding the ball of pink energy higher, as if he were offering it to them. With his other hand he drew a wide spellcircle and it began drawing from the glowing source.</p><p>Six large, upright circles flashed into existence between their party and those defending the house. Dripping purple creatures that vaguely resembled the brown-haired man with a goatee stepped out and stood tall with silent menace. The man drew a sword from the scabbard on his belt with a long, dramatic scrape of metal on metal. Then the six unusually lean abominations drew goopy swords out of their bodies and the slime sloughed off to reveal a sharpened material that was decidedly <em>not</em> squishy goo.</p><p>"Okay, that could be a <em>very big </em>problem." The witch next to Luz groaned.</p><p>The tall HGA witch that seemed to have the most authority of the group if Luz was anyone to judge looked far more smug than he had any decent right to be. He stepped forward to be clearly visible among the small army of witches, demons and monsters.</p><p>He made a show of placing a fist on his hip and cocking his head to address the man with brown hair.</p><p>"Good form, Alador. Nice to see you still have it. Be careful not to kill the humans though, I have strict instructions to bring them back alive."</p><p>The man made no indication that he heard the other witch. Luz turned in alarm when she heard a crisp whistle and the mercenary leader standing close to Noceda began to step backwards.</p><p>"What are you doing?!" Noceda gaped at him.</p><p>"You heard 'im. You two aren't on the chopping board, and we didn't sign up for a suicide mission." The other three members of his group started backing away cautiously as well. The leader demon threw Noceda a two-fingered salute.</p><p>"Have You-know-who give us a shout if you want to try again some time." And with that, the four of them dashed off towards the trees. Several of the guards and mercenaries tore off after them with a curt order from the tall HGA witch.</p><p>Luz ever so slowly turned her head to fix Noceda with a watery look. Their investigation had, just like that, collapsed in on itself. The older teen didn't acknowledge her, she was fixating the dirtiest, most wrathful look possible on the smug jerk across from them.</p><p>"We're not done here. I can promise you that." Noceda's tone was dangerous. Luz's heart sank with the words.</p><p>The tall witch's lips twisted in satisfaction before calmly speaking.</p><p>"Arrest them."</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"<em>O~hohoho</em>, I'm not going to let you precious little dears go that easily..."  <em>*takes another bite of pickled puppy*</em></p><p>                -Odalia, probably</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Next Chapter: A Blightmare on Hellm Street - Part 3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Intermission!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p>*Noceda poofs in*</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: Huh? Where the hell am I? Wait a sec... WHERE'S MY BLIGHTY-WHITEY?!</p><p> </p><p>*Blight poofs in*</p><p> </p><p>Blight: <em>the fuck you just call me?</em></p><p>
  
</p><p>Noceda: Oh my god okay you're safe *wrapped around Blight's head*</p><p> </p><p>Blight: No I'm not?! I'm freaking kidnapped, come save me, I'm at my dickhead parents' house-!</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: *straining* WHAT'S THAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF POLITICS!</p><p> </p><p>*Luz poofs in*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Hey guys! Wow, where are we? Wait a sec... WHERE'S MY QUEEN FAIR WITH GREEN HAIR?</p><p> </p><p>*Amity poofs in*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: Was someone yearning for me?</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Mi Cariño! *huggles*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON BUT I'M FINE WITH IT</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: Okay, so, we're here. What's going on? *spots ice cream vendor* OMG is that what I think it is?!</p><p> </p><p>Vendor: Hey. Getcha ice cream hurr.</p><p> </p><p>*Noceda AAAAHHHHHs in that direction*</p><p> </p><p>Blight: HUH?! *runs after her* Is this monster scaring you I'll beat it up rawr</p><p> </p><p>Vendor: ?!</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: What? No. Hey, I'll get one chocolate and one mint-chocolate. *shouts* Hey Luz! You want ice cream?</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Heck yes I do! *grabs Amity and runs over*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: ?!</p><p> </p><p>Vendor: Here's your chocolate and mint-chocolate. What'll you two have?</p><p> </p><p>Luz: One scoop of everything! Hey Amity, what flavour do you want?</p><p> </p><p>Amity: What even is this stuff?</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: *worshipping her mint-chocolate* It's ice creammmmm... and I haven't had it in yearsssss... Not since I gtfo the human realm~</p><p> </p><p>Blight: *eyeing her chocolate suspiciously* You better pay half as much attention to me later as you are that food. It can't be that good.</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: Try it. *stares lovingly at her mint-chocolate*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: *gasps happily and braces herself*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: *casts a force shield*</p><p> </p><p>*Blight takes a tentative lick of the chocolate ice cream*</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Blight: <strong>OH MY GOD</strong></p><p>
  
</p><p>*consumes it in one bite*</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: See?? Ice cream. Best thing ever.</p><p> </p><p>Blight: WHY AM I MADE OF PAIN THO?!</p><p> </p><p>Luz: That would be a brain-freeze!</p><p> </p><p>Vendor: Here's your everything-cone miss. *hands Luz 10-stacked ice cream*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: YAY! *balances ice cream* Hey Amity wanna try each flavour before you get one?</p><p> </p><p>Amity: *evil pondering* <em>If I lick some of her ice cream and then she finishes it that's basically an indirect kiss~</em></p><p> </p><p>Amity: Okay Luz, I'll try some! *puckers up*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Awesome! Hey ice cream guy, can I get a little taster spoon of each flavour for my friend?</p><p> </p><p>Vendor: Coming right up. *gets out a bunch of mini spoons*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: Luuuuuuuz.... no</p><p> </p><p>Blight: Uhh.. Noceda your ice cream is melting.</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: *still staring reverently at ice cream melting all over her hand* If I eat it then it's gone forever..</p><p> </p><p>Blight: Yeah but you're making a mess. *takes her by the elbow and starts licking melted ice cream off her hand*</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: O_O I'm... so conflicted right now.</p><p> </p><p>Blight: *sultry eyes* Why?</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: I like what you're doing but you're eating my first ice cream in like six years.</p><p> </p><p>Blight: *aghast* Okay fine! *storms off*</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: Oh god what did I do?! *runs after her*</p><p> </p><p>Vendor: Have you decided on a flavour miss?</p><p> </p><p>Amity: *still crying* Hmm.. I'll have the mocha light.</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Ooh! Bold choice. Sugar and coffee~</p><p> </p><p>Amity: I was born emboldened. *sobs to herself* <em>it just disappears when I'm around you</em></p><p>
  
</p><p>Vendor: Here you go, miss. *hands her mocha light*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: Thank you.</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Yay! *eats her entire 10-scoop cone in one bite* Ice cream is the best~</p><p> </p><p>Amity: How did you not just freeze-brain?</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Fools don't catch cold! I'm immune! :D</p><p> </p><p>*Noceda runs past them cackling like a maniac*</p><p> </p><p>Blight: *chasing* GET BACK HERE!</p><p> </p><p>Amity: *raised eyebrow* Do I want to know? *delicate licks of her ice cream*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: *shades eyes with her hand* Wow, they're fast.</p><p> </p><p>Amity: *vibrating* Eh, they're not that fast. I could run way faster. *twitching* I would totally beat any of you in a race. *bouncing rapidly*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Oh yeah? Let's see! ThreeTwoOneGO!! *scampers off*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: Zettai katsu. *blazes after her*</p><p> </p><p>*Amity catches up to Luz who is staring around a corner with her jaw dropped*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: *jaw dropped*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: What're you looking at- *turns the corner*</p><p> </p><p>Blight and Noceda: *oohlala*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: OH COME ON, NOT AGAIN! *tomato*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Wait, what do you mean "Not again"?!</p><p> </p><p>Amity: Nvmd, it was in chapter 5. You were busy.</p><p> </p><p>Luz: ?!?!?!?</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: Can you two go all the way away?!</p><p> </p><p>Blight: *grabs Noceda's face* pay atten to meh</p><p> </p><p>*Willow poofs in*</p><p> </p><p>*Willow says something but she's too high up to hear*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: *shading eyes with her hand again* ... What?</p><p> </p><p>*Willow shouts, but she's still too high up to hear*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: ... HUH?</p><p> </p><p>*Willow poofs out*</p><p> </p><p>*Illusion-Willow poofs in*</p><p> </p><p>Willow: Now can you hear me?</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Yes! Also hey, that's a neat trick!</p><p> </p><p>Amity: I'm somewhat more accepting of this less-horrific form.</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: ARE U KIDDING ME</p><p> </p><p>Willow: Don't we have an M-rating now? We could totally describe you two are doing in graphic detail-</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: STOP</p><p> </p><p>Luz: What they're doing?</p><p> </p><p>Amity: NO my waifu's innocence!!</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Aren't they just hugging?</p><p> </p><p>Amity: phew, but also what?</p><p> </p><p>Willow: I slipped uber-rose-coloured glasses on her before the fanfic even started. Since I'm hella powerful they do more than just blanket her perception in positivity, they make everything look G-rated!</p><p> </p><p>Amity: oh thank Titan.</p><p> </p><p>Luz: I'm wearing glasses? *takes them off*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: OMG *covers Luz's eyes and screeches at Blight and Noceda* GET DRESSED</p><p> </p><p>Blight: omg fine *pouts*</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: Buzzkill.</p><p> </p><p>Luz: *claps her hands over Amity's hands* I like this game!</p><p> </p><p>Amity: *eeps and backs away*</p><p> </p><p>*crunch*</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: Crunch?</p><p> </p><p>Amity: oops... I stepped on Luz's glasses..</p><p> </p><p>Willow: Hmm... something tells me she was going to need those.</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Whaaa? It's fine, I can always find a bright side!</p><p> </p><p>*deer-starfish-plant thing from ch3 poofs in*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: NOOO IT'S MURDERBAMBI KILL IT WITH FIRE!</p><p> </p><p>Blight: *sets Murderbambi on fire*</p><p> </p><p>Murderbambi: *awful dying screeches*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: mmm... evil bbq</p><p> </p><p>Willow: I could eat.</p><p> </p><p>*one festive dinner later*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Okay so now what?</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: I guess we go back to the story?</p><p> </p><p>Blight: I don't wanna T-T</p><p> </p><p>Amity: Me neither. T-T worst weekend ever</p><p> </p><p>Luz: We'll save you guys!</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: We're being arrested atm but we'll deal with it</p><p> </p><p>Blight: You better! Or we're gonna be basketcases by the time you find us.</p><p> </p><p>Willow: I'll help. I love schemes.</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Yes! Friends in high places! *finger guns*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: *facepalm* That was so insensitive.</p><p> </p><p>Willow: ... know what? I'm not even mad. It was clever.</p><p> </p><p>Noceda: Okay,but srsly tho, back to the story. I'm hella eager to find you two. The hero is on her way!</p><p> </p><p>Blight: I'll tell you right now, we're trapped in-</p><p> </p><p>*Noceda poofs out*</p><p> </p><p>Blight: *angry Blight noises*</p><p> </p><p>Luz: Ahh! Wait for me!</p><p> </p><p>Blight: No Luz wait-</p><p> </p><p>*Luz poofs out*</p><p> </p><p>Blight: DAMMIT</p><p> </p><p>*Willow poofs out*</p><p> </p><p>Amity: Okay that's just rude.</p><p> </p><p>Blight: ...</p><p> </p><p>Amity: ...</p><p> </p><p>Blight: ...</p><p> </p><p>Amity: ...</p><p> </p><p>Blight: ... T-T</p><p> </p><p>Amity: ... agreed.</p><p> </p><p>*Blight and Amity poof out*</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Next Chapter: A Blightmare on Hellm Street - Part 3</p><p>(but for reals this time, see y'all in like a week! :D &lt;3  )</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. A Blightmare on Hellm Street - Part 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Comments and kudos make the world go 'round~ Thanks so much guys! :D</p><p>Decided to cut earlier than intended and hope I don't screw up my pacing too much. Pro: With this nice long weekend we've got I might be able to boot out the next full chappie sooner than average if I push for it. Con: Cliffhanger ahead. (but cliffhangers build upper body strength!)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Blight Manor - 11:37 am</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Amity hadn't said a word to Edric the whole time they spent in Blight's room. He hadn't said anything either, he just stared at the wall. She cried into a pillow.</p><p>Emira had come into the room a short while ago. She could have been cleaning up downstairs, but Amity didn't know for sure. She did know the older witch was watching her though. She could feel it.</p><p>She gripped the musty pillow tighter when she heard quiet steps come close to the bed. It wasn't Edric; his limbs were too stiff and plodding to sound that smooth. Amity didn't want to invite Emira's ire by outright ignoring her proximity, so she cautiously lifted her head off her knees to look up at her.</p><p>Those heartless eyes were studying her. She may have seemed perturbed. Emira reached over the foot of the bed towards her face and Amity jerkily shuffled further back, letting her pillow tumble off the bed in her haste.</p><p>Emira just stood there, arm still outstretched, glaring at her. It made Amity want to cry. Again. She didn't know what she did to deserve such hate.</p><p>She could only bear a few minutes of the unrelenting stare and so Amity inched herself off of the bed. When she stood on her shaky legs, Emira didn't come after her or move other than slightly adjusting the angle of her head to follow each small movement.</p><p>Without turning to face away from her, Amity backed into the en suite bathroom and shut the door. She whimpered a little when she heard footsteps approach, but after a few moments she realized that Emira was just pacing. She locked the door and drank from the sink faucet (the water left a bad taste in her mouth), then curled up in the bathtub for a nap.</p><p>After she came to, she cleaned herself a bit with water from the sink and took some time to inspect the barrier over the window. She quietly summoned a partial-abomination, just one arm, and tried to use it to push on the barrier. It violently repelled her and she tumbled noisily to the floor, then Emira kicked the door open and hauled her back out into the bedroom.</p><p>There was no noise she could hear coming from outside the room, or the house. She didn't want to consider that Luz was gone. So she didn't. She didn't want to know why Blight was so quiet. But the silence was driving her mad.</p><p>"How long are we staying in here?" Amity almost startled herself with her own voice. She resolutely didn't look in Emira's direction and waited for Edric to notice her questioning gaze. He drew in a sigh and checked his crystal watch.</p><p>" 'bout 1:30... mm, we're not home from school yet." He replied and rewrapped his arm around his knees. It seemed as if he were perfectly contented to leave it at that, but Amity wasn't ready to be enveloped in the quiet again so soon.</p><p>"Is... did those jars really have parts of Grometheus in them?" She asked softly and shifted to sit on the corner of the bed closest to Edric (and furthest from Emira who loomed near the bathroom doorway).</p><p>He regarded her neutrally for a moment, then looked away again before answering. "Pretty sure it's the real stuff. Not sure if those're just part of Grom or what's left of it. Mom uses it for time-outs when we've really disappointed her."</p><p>Edric then turned to look at her again and held her gaze this time. His eyes weren't malicious, per se, but there was still something about them that felt so very wrong.</p><p>"You know, Mom only put all the pieces together twice before today. First when Emira broke out for the third time. Second was when she almost killed Dad while he was dormant." He lifted a hand to twirl a finger and indicated his left eye. "That's why he's all, ookie, here."</p><p>Emira slammed a fist against the wall, leaving a deep little crater, and they both shut up for a while. Amity wouldn't have dared tried speaking again, but Edric either knew how to further avoid triggering his sister or he just felt like talking still and took the risk.</p><p>"So... what are you exactly? Some kind of clone of our sister?"</p><p>Given that the topic was one of the least frightening things she'd had to discuss in this house, the question came with an odd sort of comfort.</p><p>She pulled her knees up to her chin again and balanced on the bed corner. "As far as I understand, I come from another dimension. Our world is a lot like this one, but it's also different in a lot of ways."</p><p>Edric turned in place to look up at her from his place on the floor. "Is there a version of me in your dimension, like how you and our little sister are so similar?"</p><p>Amity watched him for a moment before answering. Looking at the witch now, curled up into himself against the wall and seeming almost eager, he was coming across as a normal person. It was difficult for a few beats to remember that he <em>wasn't </em> her Edric, and he was a dangerous witch who had helped kidnap her and aided in keeping her here. But... she could have just a little break from the constant awfulness, couldn't she? Indulging him would feel almost like talking to her brother..</p><p>"... yes. He looks a lot like you." Her eyes dropped to focus on the tops of her knees. "He teases me a lot. But he looks out for me too, sometimes. I never thought I'd say it... I kind of miss him."</p><p>Edric looked wistful and didn't ask anything else. Amity wanted to see how Emira regarded their little exchange and made the mistake of looking at her. The other witch kept her distance but she was glaring at her like she wanted to rip Amity apart. It put her firmly back into the present.</p><p><em>I want to go home.</em> She didn't want to cry again. She was so tired of crying. <em>I want to go home so badly and sleep in my own bed.</em></p><p>Eventually Edric announced that it was three-o'clock and that they could 'be home early' if Amity was bored. As odd as it was to think of herself being bored in her situation, she did want get away from the heavy monotony of sitting around. But what Odalia had said scared her more and she didn't want to leave the room. 'Taking up the human-nonsense with Father' could mean any number of terrible things. If she was lucky, maybe the woman would forget about it.</p><p>She certainly didn't feel lucky. Her thoughts drifted out of the room to her older counterpart down the hall. Amity could hear her every once in a while. She started sobbing again until Emira stomped over and slapped her in the back of the head.</p><p>"It's almost four. You're going to want to stop looking weak before we face Mother." Edric told her as he slowly got to his feet, pain from the action very evident on his face. "Sometimes she'll notice if you've been crying."</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Top Pick Boulevard - 10:14 am</p><p> </p><p>"This was a direct and purposeful attempt to assault the Blight household! I motion to have them thrown out of the city immediately!"</p><p>"Now now, let's not be unreasonable. These are humans, they may not understand that what they are doing is wrong. I don't think it would be fair to judge them as we would our own people."</p><p> </p><p>Luz wasn't sure why the witch with three eyes was sticking up for them (well, sort of); His opinion was in the clear minority and he was quickly becoming the only thing stopping her and Noceda from being kicked out of Bonesborough outright. She didn't want to be overly negative, but she couldn't help but be a little suspicious of his motivations.</p><p>"Bah, Nikoleye, you're too just for your own good." A blue-skinned demon with no teeth snapped. He was <em>vehemently</em> against treating them with any sort of respect. "Judge them as beasts then. Have them destroyed!"</p><p>"If you think we'll just stand here and let you fuckers-!" Noceda exploded, but true to his threat last night, the toothless demon spun a claw and the older teens lips were pinched shut by a greenish glow. She immediately started to pull at her face and made furious noises with her throat. This was not looking good.</p><p>"Really, Obligus, I believe it would be much more in our interests to detain them for now. They are important witnesses for the investigation of Captain Gus' recent actions. They might also have some, hmm, interesting information regarding Willow Park that could be extracted. They present us a unique perspective into her place of operations."</p><p>Luz didn't like the way this 'Nikoleye'-person was speaking <em>at all.</em> It sounded like he wanted to force them to talk about Willow.</p><p>"Throw them in the holding cells then." An olive-green witch sneered. She had been particularly condescending before but seemed to have gotten bored with the whole ordeal. The other witches and demons of the Council murmured agreements or nodded, even the ones that hadn't been particularly vocal up to this point. Nikoleye seemed to be particularly pleased with the way things were going.</p><p>This was bad. This was really bad! If they were stuck in some kind of prison then not only would Amity have no one to help her, but Luz would need saving as well! She couldn't let it happen!</p><p>She glanced at Noceda. The older teen was glaring viciously at the guards surrounding them and she was subtly pulling glyphs out of her pockets in preparation for an attack. Luz didn't think they could fight their way out of this situation, they had to find another way to stay free.</p><p>
  <em>Think, Luz. Think!</em>
</p><p>Maybe they could pretend to betray Willow? Or she could try to break down into hysterics and they might treat her like a child and not throw her in jail. Think, think, think! What did these people say or do that she could use?</p><p>
  <em>"Good form, Alador. Be careful not to kill the humans though, I have strict instructions to bring them back alive."</em>
</p><p>Luz's eye widened fractionally. That's it!</p><p>Just as the council-members seemed to reach an agreement and were about to signal the guards to restrain them, Luz's hand shot straight up into the air.</p><p>"Um, excuse me!" She asked in a high voice. Her heart was pounding like crazy, she hoped this would work. "If you're going to take us to prison or something, I want to make sure you have puffers?"</p><p>The various witches and demons murmured in confusion until the three-eyed witch leaned forward and asked, "What is this 'puffers', and why would you inquire about it?"</p><p>
  <em>Okay, Luz, keep going. You can do this!</em>
</p><p>She took a deep breath and perched a hand on her hip, trying to embody herself with as much 'matter-of-fact"-ness that she could muster. Noceda was looking at her like she was nuts but she ignored the other teen.</p><p>"Uh, because we have asthma? If you're for real about treating us fairly then that means keeping us alive right?" She focused on the three-eyed witch, Nikoleye, since he was the one who had been most in their favour. It could have been him who ordered her and Noceda be brought back safely and he did seem to be paying close attention to her now.</p><p>The witch narrowed his eyes in confusion, but before he could ask, Luz volunteered her off-the-cusp explanation. She didn't really know that much about asthma other than the fact that this one boy who sat next to her in math class had it and he had a puffer. He'd use it every once in a while and it was important that he did. They weren't friends, but he'd lent her his pencil sharpener once which was more than most kids did for her.</p><p>"We're <em>humans</em>, we have a lot of health issues. If my friend and I don't use our puffers regularly, then we won't be able to breathe. We have ours at the house we've been staying at for the last few days. Do <em>you </em>have puffers at your prison? Or," She wracked her brain, trying to come up with anything else, "-human vitamins for that matter? We aren't going to last very long if you just throw us in a cell without our medications. Honestly, that sounds barbaric!"</p><p>She resisted the urge to fidget and did her best to keep a strong gaze on the three-eyed witch. She really hoped she sounded convincing!</p><p>The blue-skinned demon, -Obligus, wasn't it?- scoffed suspiciously. "If these things are so important to you humans, why don't you have them with you?" He snorted and muttered more quietly to himself, "Calling <em>us</em> barbaric, <em>really now</em>."</p><p>Luz couldn't help but nervously peek at Noceda who was looking at her with wide eyes. The three-eyed witch watched her carefully, and asked slowly, "Yes, do tell?"</p><p>Gulping dryly, she said the first thing that popped into her head. "We... didn't want to lose them?" The wobbly grin on Luz's face had been used many times, unsuccessfully, when trying to convince her mother of innocence or misunderstanding on her part before.</p><p>To her surprise though, the council-members' demeanor began changing quite rapidly. The three-eyed witch was stroking his goatee in thought and the others were quickly descending into disinterest.</p><p>"This is ridiculous. We have more important things to do than waste time on these frail creatures." A horned-demon with a very deep voice said. The condescending female witch from before nodded and sighed long-sufferingly. "Agreed. Just send them back to where they were holing up and keep them under house-arrest." She waved her hand in a 'shoo-shoo' motion like she couldn't be rid of them fast enough.</p><p>"The humans are staying in the north residential district, awfully close to Willow Park." Nikoleye said, a bit of hesitation in his voice.</p><p>"And if she takes any action against the guards we send to watch them, then we'll have undeniable proof of her hostility towards the council! I say let the humans go back to their nest." The blue-skinned guy stated triumphantly. He looked almost eager for the possibility of Willow acting against them.</p><p>After a few minutes more of debating amongst themselves, they did in fact decide to send her and Noceda back to the safe house. They were expressly forbidden to leave unless summoned, but it was definitely a lot better than going to a demon jail!</p><p> </p><p><em>"Good thinking." </em>Noceda whispered to her after they left Top Pick Boulevard and were on their way back to the safe house. There was a guard leading the way several paces ahead of them and two more trailing behind. They didn't seem to be overly concerned about the possibility of attempts to fight back or run away. The pair were chattering and snickering between them and the one up front was whistling merrily.</p><p>Luz shared a tired little grin. Now that they were away from the scary witches and demons of the council she was beginning to feel her exhaustion creep back in. Her muscles were sore from being on the go almost non-stop for nearly a full day now and Noceda didn't look much better. Thankfully the twist in her ankle had been made manageable before their confrontation at Blight Manor, and another glyph or two should bring it back to normal.</p><p>"Now that we're here, you two be good and stay put." The leading guard said once they reached the front porch of the safe house. "No leaving the premises. You've caused enough trouble for us as it is!"</p><p>"Yessir!" Luz saluted and pushed Noceda up the steps before she could follow up the dirty look she was shooting the guard. Once they were inside the older teen immediately limp-darted around to close any curtains or block off windows so nobody could see in.</p><p>"So what do we do now?" Luz asked while applying a healing glyph when Noceda had stopped moving. She grunted appreciatively at the wider range of motion. Whatever the older teen was going to say got cut off by a yawn that she tried and failed to suppress. It made Luz yawn as well and she felt irritated and guilty for being so tired even when Amity might need her help.</p><p>"<em>You</em> have something to eat and get some rest. I'm going to keep an eye out for any sign of Owlbert or perhaps Willow." Noceda ordered and went to the kitchen to find something edible. They were both running on a handful of snacks each and Luz was starting to feel light-headed. She didn't think she could sleep though, she was far too anxious.</p><p>"Do you think Owlbert will come back here? Maybe he'll notice the guards and let Willow know something's up." Luz pondered out loud and accepted some salt-cured meat and a crunchy pink vegetable that she had really come to like. Her stomach roared at her to put the food in it as soon as possible.</p><p>"Not sure. It's kind of hit-or-miss with how much initiative he has on his own. Quick thinking with sending him off before we were captured, by the way. If they had taken him we would have been extra-fucked."</p><p>Leaving the older teen to her agitated patrolling, Luz went up the stairs to wash up a bit. It helped a little with how tired she felt. When she wandered into the oddly-shaped bedroom she and Amity were sharing and noticed the witch's abandoned sleeping bag they had both slept in not so long ago... something twisted inside hard enough to make her gasp and fall to her knees.</p><p>She pulled herself into a tight self-hug. Amity wasn't here. It was Luz's fault. If she hadn't been so stubborn about everything then they wouldn't have fought or split up and none of this would have happened. She was trying <em>so hard</em> to keep it together so she could be helpful while they searched for Blight and Amity. It was getting harder and harder. Fatigue and doubt were wearing her down.</p><p>
  <em>What if they need us, right now? What if they're in some terrible trouble and all we've done is waste time? What if we can't find them?</em>
</p><p>Oh <em>that</em> did it. With a throaty whine she shuffled forward on her knees until she reached Amity's sleeping bag and wrapped it around her like a blanket. She sat on the floor against the front of the couch and mashed her face into the softness. Maybe if she pressed hard enough it would force the tears to stay in.</p><p>Nope. The sounds of her own sniffling broke the rest of the dam and before she knew it she was sobbing into the sleeping bag.</p><p>"Amity... I'm sorry.. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have made you go..!"</p><p>
  <em>Just let me find her. Please oh please let her be okay. Just let me find her. I'll do anything for her to be safe. I want to go home. Amity, I want to bring you home! Like you wanted!</em>
</p><p>She didn't remember actually falling asleep, but she woke up on her side with her face pressed into a damp spot on the sleeping-blanket. Her skin was itchy and her eyelashes heavy with moisture.</p><p>The fact that she'd gone down at all make her jolt all the way awake and she instinctively looked for her phone before remembering that its battery had died. Her searching gaze found the old grandfather clock in the room and saw that she must have been out for a little over an hour.</p><p>Growling to herself, Luz got up and roughly wiped at her face until it was more-or-less dry and she began pacing. What did they have that they could use right now?</p><p>They had their glyphs... but that wasn't enough. The house was full of artifacts? Though they had no idea what most of them were for. She had her mirror shard? Could they use that somehow?</p><p>They needed to get to Willow. She was sure of it. The plant witch was firmly on their side and she was enough of a loose canon to be okay with breaking the rules around here. Luz didn't want to get her in trouble, but they might need to take drastic measures so that they could find Amity and Blight.</p><p>She jogged down the stairs and around the ground floor. The noise she made was enough to have Noceda jerk up from her position at the kitchen table (with Blight's huge pajama shirt pooled under her head). The older teen blinked blearily and Luz gave her a moment to fully wake up under the guise of getting a drink. Noceda was grumbling irritably almost immediately, proving Luz right that she shared her guilt and frustration at their very human need to rest.</p><p>"So I have an idea. Or, part of an idea maybe." Luz placed the mirror shard on the table as soon as Noceda looked awake enough.</p><p>"Mm. Yeah, lay it on me." She clapped her cheeks and sniffed hard, then gave Luz her full attention.</p><p>Luz tapped the small glass artifact. "We could make a duplicate of one of us and have them run, but like get the guards' attention and stuff while we make a break for Willow's. Maybe she'll have thought of something?"</p><p>Noceda scratched at her scalp under her beanie, eyeing the shard. "I don't know... if we don't come up with anything better soon then I guess I'm willing to try it. Though I really don't want to turn this place into a warzone, there's no telling if that'll make it harder to find them."</p><p>They poked around the house some more and peeked out the various windows to get a lock on where each guard was. The patrolling witches and demon were spread out and occasionally making a round. Luz figured it might be possible to fly away from an upstairs window without being seen but there was no sign of Owlbert. Thankfully, the other half of a plan literally sprang up out of the floor.</p><p>"Luz! C'mere!" Noceda whisper-shouted from somewhere. Luz darted around until she found Noceda crouched over near the door that led out into the little backyard. A small dark-green vine tipped with something like a gleaming silver thorn was curling out of the floor and laboriously splintering the wood around it.</p><p>"That has to be Willow!" Luz said excitedly and got down on her knees to take a closer look. The vine lifted up like a snake and seemed to almost ponderously look at them in turn. Then it bent over and applied it's sharp tip to the floor, scratching out what they quickly identified to be words.</p><p>
  <em>'Gonna make guard sleepy. Get to me and don't let others see you.'</em>
</p><p>"She's going to make the guards sleepy? How?" Luz looked up at Noceda who shrugged. The vine looped over itself and seemed to point towards the back door and then it retracted into the floor. Noceda sidled up to the door and cautiously pushed the little curtain that covered the window enough to see through. She flinched back, and Luz could hear heavy bootsteps. When they stopped however, the older teen's eyebrows shot up.</p><p>"Okay, I get what she's going for. Come on!" Noceda quietly unlatched and opened the door and Luz could see the witch outside looking woozy. The little sharp-tipped vine near their ankle pulled back into the ground and disappeared.</p><p>"Hold on a second!" Luz dashed away suddenly, ignoring Noceda's whisper-yelled protests and she ran into the kitchen to pick up the mirror shard. She reached in past the glass and pulled her reflection out (which still looked bizarre as she kind of squeezed out into existence). She had no idea how far away the shard could be from her reflection so she handed it to herself to be sure. Then she darted back to where Noceda was with both bodies and had her reflection wave at them with a grin.</p><p>"I'll stay here and make sure the guards see me every once in a while through the window. Maybe they won't check in on us?" She said eagerly. Noceda nodded rapidly.</p><p>"Alright, good plan. Now let's go!" She waved Luz over impatiently and checked to make sure the coast was clear of the other two guards. They crept into the backyard and Luz heard her reflection lock the backdoor from inside. That would help with the ploy that they were still in the house!</p><p>The guard was leaning heavily against the fence and rubbing their face, so the two of them took the chance to slip away. When they had crossed from their house's backyard into the backyard next to it they broke into a flat-out run while dipping and diving over fences and debris. It only took a few minutes to reach Willow's towering house-tree and the front door opened for them when they approached.</p><p>"Willow! Any news?" Noceda called up to her the moment she saw the plant witch.</p><p>"They haven't shown up anywhere I can see." Willow responded. Luz squinted up at her dimly-lit figure and noticed that her glowing eyes seemed to be flickering. "I have been operating under your suspicion that they're at the Blight residence, and I have my reasons for suspecting them as well."</p><p>Luz worried her lip while she listened to the exchange. By this point if Amity and Blight <em>weren't</em> there, they would have sacrificed an awful lot of time for nothing. It had been over twenty-four hours since she and Noceda discovered that Amity was missing, for all they knew the two witches weren't even in Bonesborough anymore. The idea almost made her well up again and she rigorously scrubbed at her eyes.</p><p>"I want to try sneaking in. Since those council morons think they've got us all contained they might not have many guards set up around the place." Noceda said, but Luz had to give voice to her doubts.</p><p>"Guys... what if they aren't there?"</p><p>Her little voice seemed to bring a lot more pause to Noceda's fire than she thought it would. The older teen was looking at her like she'd been struck in the face and Luz suddenly wished she hadn't said anything.</p><p>"I believe I will be able to help out with that particular uncertainty soon." Willow interjected.</p><p>Noceda whipped her head up and her voice sounded pretty desperate. "Yeah? How?"</p><p>Luz clasped her hands together and looked up to the plant witch as well. She was really struggling and need to hear something good.</p><p>"Remember I said I was working on a backup plan? Well, I almost have some pieces in place." Willow's voice echoed around the room with a touch of smugness.</p><p>"My sensory network only stretches so far before it becomes too costly, magic-wise, to keep up with. And my vines will sometimes draw sensitive corrupted people to them, which is why I don't monitor the blocked-off sections of the city." Her voice got a touch harder, and Luz could imagine her eyes narrowing as she continued. "Also, I <em>know</em> that my vines are being targeted if I manage to encroach too far out into East res. That's where the Blights are, and maybe some of the other rich-witch families if they haven't eaten each other yet or something. I haven't had a good reason to prioritize a push for that area until this happened."</p><p>Noceda nodded impatiently. "Okay, so what'd you do?" Now Luz could imagine the plant witch grinning.</p><p>"I tried tackling the problem from another angle. If my calculations are correct and nothing unexpected delays me, then I'll have a spy-vine in the Blight house in roughly an hour using the same method I got to you two undetected."</p><p>Luz's eyes widened in sudden realization. "I get it! You had your plants burrow underground!"</p><p>In lieu of a nod, Willow affirmed with a sly, 'Mhm'.</p><p>"Normally the least resistance, and therefore cheapest magic expenditure, is for me to grow along surfaces. But this time, I went deep; much deeper than I've ever tried going before and I am doing quite well to be patient. The slower I grow, the harder it will be to detect my approach. By the time I've got eyes in that house it'll be too late for them to hide away any unwilling guests. Soon, we'll know for sure if we can eliminate that place as a possibility, or hopefully know for sure if they're guilty after all."</p><p>"Yes!" Noceda smacked a fist into her other hand. The makings of a plan were quickly bringing her spirits back up.</p><p>"So if they do turn out to be there, what do we do?" Luz asked apprehensively, "Do you think the council people will even listen to us?"</p><p>"I'm not going to wait around for those assholes. We got close to the house before, we can do it again. And I'm not gonna fuck up and fall like a frail old bat this time. I'll blow up a wall if I know they're in there." Noceda snarled, and despite the aggression Luz was starting to feel better as well. Not knowing where to point all their determination was hard, but if they could just locate their lost witches...</p><p>"I might be able to help with that as well."</p><p>Luz craned her neck up to pin the witch with a hopeful gaze. She was ravenous for anything to help foster her hope.</p><p>"Once I'm in, and if we find our confirmation, then I have a colleague who will be quite useful for not only getting you to the house secretly but also <em>inside</em> without a fuss<em>.</em> He's a master of stealth; A break-and-enter specialist if you will." The witch leered down at them proudly. Noceda raised a brow, the question evident on her face even through the dimness.</p><p>"You might even remember him, Noceda." The witch said with a teasing lilt to her voice. "He pushed us off a cliff once."</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Blight Manor - 4:02 pm</p><p> </p><p>"Mother, we're home!" Edric called out.</p><p>They were standing near the front door, though they hadn't actually gone outside. Amity wondered how Edric expected the elder witch to know he said anything without seeing his face. She was certain by now that Odalia's corruptions had rendered her deaf.</p><p>"Welcome home, children. Please join me in the living room." Odalia's grating voice floated merry to them. Amity managed to frown with irritation even while her stomach did anxious flip-flops.</p><p>The west living room had been straightened up quite well. Even the pieces of furniture that had been too damaged from their fight, or wrecked entirely, had been replaced with things taken from other rooms in the house.</p><p>Amity sat on the long couch that she had always wanted to stretch out on but was expressly forbade to as her mother didn't want feet touching the upholstery (if she could see the state of this version of her couch, she would have been mortified). Small blessings situated Emira on the other side of Edric when they sat, and Amity's attention was torn between Odalia speaking to them and the little plates of mini hard-breads set out on the low table.</p><p>"Tell me about your day, children." Odalia's head hovered in her tall chair roughly where it would be if she were sitting in it properly. Amity already knew from the moment she left Blight's bedroom that Odalia's body was in the study, as all three of them were careful not to brush against her neck in the hall or down the stairs on their way to the front door.</p><p>Edric began speaking about a fabricated day at Hexside, as if he had been studying in school all day like society hadn't collapsed and he was several years younger. Amity eyed the hard-breads with their colourful toppings and internally debated.</p><p>When her mother would sit them down like this to report on school, they could partake in the provided tea snacks so long as they weren't actually speaking with their mouth full. Emira and Edric hadn't made any move to take their plates, but that didn't tell her much. She weighed the odds that this Odalia would want them to wait until they finished speaking against the yawning cavern her stomach had become at the sight of something remotely edible.</p><p>A particularly insistent cramp made her go for it. Amity leaned forward cautiously and picked up her plate, glancing at Odalia for any sign of disapproval before resuming her straight-backed position on the couch. The woman continued to listen to Edric talk about his supposed day of classes. Amity looked at her prize and decided that even as hungry as she was, she didn't want to risk whatever the toppings were (they certainly didn't look like soft cheese and veggies or cold cuts). She surreptitiously used one hard-bread to scrape the top of the other onto the plate and vise-versa, then ate the little breads. The remaining two untouched plates seemed to mock her, and while Edric spoke of Emira's day for her, she wondered about the fact that she hadn't actually seen the siblings eat.</p><p>"And how was your day, Amity?" She jolted to attention, flushing a bit with nerves at having been caught staring at the rest of the snacks. She scrambled for some approximation of a typical school day and hoped to Titan she was doing this right.</p><p>"I-um, uh... My day was pleasant. Mother." <em>Not convincing enough, not confident enough! </em>She swallowed nervously. "We were, um, given a written test today in Viscosity and Malleability and I achieved a perfect score." Odalia kept watching her expectantly so Amity wracked her brain for anything else she could report on. She fiddled with the little plate in her hands and wished she had paid attention to what Edric had said.</p><p>"W-we learned about history.. in History class.." <em>Dammit.</em> "And, um, in Spelling, uh, I spelled.. well. I mean good. I mean, not the word 'well', <em>I mean I did well in Spelling class..</em>." She was freaking out. She didn't know what else to say and she started to panic!</p><p>Odalia finally tilted her head in mild regard. "A bit brief, Amity, but it sounds like your day was at least somewhat productive." She cleared her throat (at least that's what it sounded like she was trying to do) and continued. "Edric, Emira, please wash up and start on your homework. Dinner will be ready at five-thirty sharp."</p><p>Amity wasn't sure if it was a relief or not to watch as the two older witches trudged up the stairs and left her alone with Odalia's head. The woman looked down her nose before speaking again.</p><p>"Follow me, Amity. Your Father and I will speak to you now about your little, 'human-issue'." She said the last part delicately, like the words might infect her tongue just by having uttered them. Her head floated up and bobbed along with her retracting neck and Amity jumped up to put her plate on the table. After a second or two to think about it, she snatched one of the other hard-breads and scraped the toppings off with a finger and put it in her pocket. She wiped off the residue on her pants and followed Odalia up the stairs.</p><p>During the last several steps and in the moment it took for them to reach Father's study from the staircase, Amity found herself oddly fascinated by the way Odalia's neck curved away from her head. It seemed so sinewy and fragile and didn't look like it should be able to support itself. It probably required constant magic to do that.</p><p>
  <em>If I broke her neck, would that actually kill her like it would a normal witch?</em>
</p><p>The thought caught her by such surprise that Amity felt shame followed immediately by a crushing fear. She wasn't a murderer, and oh Titan if Odalia somehow knew what she had been thinking then the punishment would likely be too awful to bear!</p><p>They were in the study before she could properly imagine anything and Odalia retracted to her spot on the chair. Next to her sat Alador behind his great big desk, stoic as usual. Each step Amity took towards them was like walking near a cliff with her eyes closed; It required a lot of strength and she didn't know which step would possibly take her over the edge.</p><p>"Your Father and I are very disappointed with this 'affiliation' you seem to have with the human that has been allowed to muddle about your school. I assume it is there for some form of study venture, although I will be speaking to Principal Bump as soon as I can to express my concerns."</p><p>Amity had imagined the scenario where she spoke to her parents about Luz many, <em>many</em> times. She didn't know if they were even aware of her existence yet, but they would inevitably find out. And when that time came that they learned of her friendship with Luz... well, a lot of her imagined scenarios were as much fantasy as her Good Witch Azura books were for all the courage she didn't feel capable of displaying.</p><p>"Frankly I think the decision to expose witchings to that creature is reckless and outrageous. I do believe I will campaign to have it removed actually. In the meantime, Amity, I forbid you from further associating with the human. It wouldn't do to give the Pitchdarks another thing to gossip about. Why, a single rumour could very well be enough to affect your future standing with the Emperor's Coven!"</p><p>Hearing this Odalia speak about Luz like she was.. some, <em>diseased thing</em> reached in further than her fear and her sense and made something inside Amity burn hotly. Her hands curled tightly into fists and she bit the inside of her lip to keep her face neutral. The rage and indignation she felt was <em>so</em> much better than the constant clawing dread and she let herself revel in it, just a little.</p><p>"I want to be sure that you fully comprehend your instructions regarding that creature. After you complete your homework tonight, you will write lines and deliver them to me before you go to bed." The horrible woman kept going on. Something was twisting inside her and Amity was having difficulty remembering how terrifying this woman's eyes were while she glared holes into the floor.</p><p>"Your sentence will be, 'As a Blight, I must not associate with beings below my station.' I want this written on standard parchment, single-sided, three-hundred times. Perhaps this time the lesson will actually <em>stick.</em>"</p><p><em>Shut up. Shut up. Shut Up Shut Up SHUT UP. </em>She didn't know if she was saying it to herself or at the evil old witch. How dare she decide who Amity could be friends with. It wasn't fair. It wasn't <em>right</em>. She wasn't some doll for her mother to dress up and control. </p><p>Amity dimly registered some form of dismissal and she began to turn away so she could finally leave the room and get started on all the work she had to do now. She dearly wished later on that she hadn't heard the words that Odalia muttered bitterly before she had taken more than two steps.</p><p>"Ugh, this whole ordeal has left me feeling quite ill. Could you imagine if the human actually <em>touched</em> any of our children?"</p><p>"That's enough!"</p><p>It took a few seconds for Amity to realize that she had been the one to whirl in place and nearly shout the words. There was an exhilarating terror rushing through her and although her body felt so worn out her head felt light and hot and <em>angry</em>.</p><p>"Luz isn't some creature for you to belittle. So what if she's human? She's brave, and strong, and sometimes does stupid things, but she does them because she's kind! You're both terrible for judging her before you've even <em>met</em> her! I'm sick of it! I refuse to throw away my relation..ship with. her. just. because..." She trailed off.</p><p>Her little flame of courage had quickly burnt up the veil between her rage and her reality. For a moment, one glorious, blazing little moment, she was in her fantasy and telling her parents how it was going to be. But this wasn't a scenario in her head. It wasn't even a scenario in her <em>world.</em> And the monsters were watching her. Both of them.</p><p>Alador's one good eye bore into her widening ones and her stomach dropped. She'd forgotten where she was. She'd just yelled at her captors. Her very cruel, insane captors.</p><p>While Amity escalated through various stages of internal horror, she flinched when Alador reached over with his left hand to rest it on the arm of Odalia's chair. The woman's eyebrows rose with the action and she laboriously jerked her own hand to meet his. She seemed to momentarily forget to be enraged or disgusted while she looked at where their hands connected.</p><p>But Amity felt like she was suffocating under Alador's heavy stare and distinct frown. Was she even drawing breaths at all right now? Her entire body couldn't seem to decide if she was too hot or too cold and internally she was tearing at her metaphorical hair.</p><p>
  <em>-stupidstupidstupidstupid ohwhydidIsaythat ohTitanthey'regoingtoactuallykillme-</em>
</p><p>Odalia seemed to reluctantly break out of her reverie and she adjusted the placement of her head to seem like she was standing. She 'tsked' at Amity.</p><p>"Young lady, that was entirely uncalled for. Your Father is very upset with your improper behaviour. Come with me, I want you to see exactly where this sort of rebellious nonsense lands you."</p><p>Her head bobbed along nearly out the door but Amity couldn't move. Part of her felt like she would die if she broke eye contact with the man who looked like her father. She could hear his large hand stress the wood and fabric of the chair arm under his tense fingers and the thought of him getting up was enough to allow her to move, if very slowly.</p><p>Odalia 'walked' her out the door and down the dim hallway to the left. They got closer and closer to the one harsh light that bathed the nursery door and immediate area around it. Edric was standing a few steps from the door, looking for all the world like an illuminated statue in a park. He perked to life as they approached.</p><p>"Edric, be a dear and open the door please." Odalia said to him. He nodded and did as he was told. As the door creaked open, the same feeling from before like the room was sucking in the atmosphere around it settled into Amity and she was properly shaking now.</p><p>The hall light only stretched so far into the room, and where it ended the darkness seemed so thick as to just cut it off. She didn't want to look. She didn't want to see the little movements, or hear the whispering and rustling.</p><p>"Amity, come out please."</p><p>It was after an excruciatingly long moment that Blight slowly stepped out of the inky blackness into the light of the doorway. There were <em>things</em> pulling off of her and shying away as they were exposed to the glare. They melted back into the darkness with longing sighs.</p><p>Amity could hear whimpering. She was pretty sure it was coming from herself though. She clasped her hands so painfully tight in front of her ribcage that she might actually snap her own fingers.</p><p>Blight looked completely haunted. Her clothes were bedraggled and torn in places and her boots were missing. Although her hair was damp with sweat it had been nicely brushed. She was covered in small cuts and bruises, and all ten of her claws were chewed half-way down to the cuticle. She was bleeding from both ears and her eyes stayed mercifully downcast.</p><p>"Amity, I want you to wash up and be presentable for dinner at five-thirty sharp."</p><p>When she didn't move, other than blinking steadily, Odalia sighed and told Edric to 'help his little sister along'. He shuffled into the doorway and pulled her out by the arm, then nudged her so she would start walking towards her room. He guided her until Odalia spoke, and they both jolted to a stop.</p><p>"Amity."</p><p>No one said anything for a moment.</p><p>Her blood was freezing in her veins as Amity meekly checked and saw that Odalia was looking down at her. A brow was raised and she was obviously waiting for a response.</p><p>"..yes?" She whispered. Those disapproving eyes narrowed as they scrutinized her trembling lips. "..Mother?"</p><p>That seemed to be what she was waiting for.</p><p>"In you go. I want you to think long and hard about your attitude, and just how important that human is to you."</p><p>Amity's lungs wouldn't expand; she might be suffocating. All of the air was being drawn into the nursery and leaving none for her. The living blackness roiled and yearned to take her.</p><p>"I don't want to go in there." She pleaded in a tiny voice. Even if Odalia saw the protest on her lips, she wasn't going to change her mind.</p><p>Frightened eyes turned to look helplessly over at Blight. The older witch didn't turn around of course. Didn't jump into action to save her. She could do nothing.</p><p>There was an irritated sigh from somewhere above her.</p><p>"Amity really now. What has gotten into you lately? Edric, if you wouldn't mind?"</p><p>Four seconds felt like an eternity, and then she felt a hand press against her spine and nudge her forward, gently. In three little steps, she was in the doorway. The pressure remained consistent, and with five more steps she was in the room. The hand was gone and with it any warmth she might have had left in her body.</p><p>Amity couldn't even turn to watch as the door began to close, taking the light with it. She heard the woman's voice reminding someone to drink their potion.</p><p>"..please.." She whispered as the darkness swallowed her up.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Next Chapter: A Blightmare on Hellm Street - Part 4</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. A Blightmare on Hellm Street - Part 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Double smol update?? Now I'm just being impatient &gt;_&gt; Lovely comments make me go brrrr~</p><p>Warning for Amity meeting corrupted-Grom, methinks. It's brief but still got some horror stuffs.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p>Willow's House - 4:09 pm</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>It took just about an hour for Willow's spy-vine to finish the journey to Blight Manor. 'Right on time', she had said, and honestly anything going according to plan was just golden right now.</p><p>Noceda waited with bated breath while Willow commentated her vine inching laboriously up the wall and finally reaching a window.</p><p>"-aaand, over the sill. Securing a feeler. It'll take a minute to grow and connect an eyeball at this distance, hold on."</p><p>Noceda peered up at her friend and scrutinized what she could see of her face from so far down. Luz had quietly mentioned it to her earlier, but she was only really noticing it now..</p><p>"Willow.. your eyes are flickering a lot. They weren't doing that when we first got here. You okay?"</p><p>She had to wait the full minute of the presumed long-distance-ocular-growth before the plant witch finally answered. Noceda wasn't entirely convinced when the response merely consisted of a curt, "Yes". Any worries she might have had had to be put on the back-burner though.</p><p>"I can see Amity. Little Amity." Willow's voice echoed neutrally around the room. Her lack of emoting was easily balanced out however.</p><p>"<strong>YES!</strong> Yes yes yes yes!!" Luz was cheering and pumping her fists in the air, her loud follow-up, "Whooooooooooo!" actually managing to bring a grin to Noceda's face after so many hours of hard stress.</p><p>"Can you see anyone else? What room are you in?" Noceda asked eagerly. She was beyond relieved to hear that Amity was located, but she did want to know where Blight was as soon as possible.</p><p>"How does she look? Is Amity okay?" Luz added brightly and looked like she couldn't decide between watching Willow's face and surging over to scale her giant beanstalk of a body. Noceda had really missed seeing that energy from her.</p><p>Willow's eyes flickered faster than ever and she took a moment to begin answering them.</p><p>"I'm on the west side of the house.. I believe this is the living room." She was quiet for a few seconds between relays, but it felt much longer to Noceda. She was so hungry for news. "The older Blight siblings are with her. The three of them are sitting on a couch. They look like they're talking to an empty-oh. There's a head.."</p><p>"A head?" She tried not to tap her foot impatiently while the witch paused.</p><p>"Odalia Blight's head appears to be floating in the chair opposite to them. It looks like they're talking and having snacks."</p><p>Glaring oddities aside, that almost sounded too good to be true. Noceda kind of wanted to tell Luz to settle down (she had a grating headache still), but she didn't have the heart to. "Anyone else in there with them?" She asked, hopeful.</p><p>"Not in this room. No."</p><p>"Does Amity look alright? Is she hurt?" Luz called up, cupping her hands around her mouth to be extra-sure she was heard.</p><p>"I can hear you just fine, Luz. Amity looks tired. I don't see any major injuries on her." Willow said, then seemed to add as an after-thought. "She's currently eating toast or someting."</p><p>While the younger teen went quiet as she mulled the information over, Noceda slammed a fist into her other palm to psych herself up.</p><p>"So you're going to let this 'stealth master' know we need him after all?" She asked, and the witch confirmed that she was already sending him the update.</p><p>Willow had said that Noceda knew the demon who was supposedly going to sneak them across the city and into the Blight house without being seen. However, her description hadn't been helpful enough to jog her memory of him or the associated trouble with a group of demon hunters. It probably said a little too much about her to not recall the person who had shoved her and her friends, who were bound to her by ropes at the time, over a cliff to their presumed death.</p><p>Speaking of which...</p><p>"I don't suppose you can get a message through to Gus, huh?" Noceda kicked guiltily at the ground. This whole situation had put a whole heap of trouble on her other friend's shoulders and even if she didn't feel she could risk his standing in Bonesborough any more, she still wanted to at least let him know what was going on. And maybe... kinda sorta hoped he would offer to join their little raid party..</p><p>She thought back to their confrontation at the manor just several hours ago. That man, Blight's dad.. he was powerful, and he definitely meant business. The plan was to try and sneak their green-haired witches away but if push came to shove they might have to fight and it could get nasty. She would really feel better if she could have someone experienced covering her back...</p><p>"Gus is being watched far too closely right now. I wouldn't want to risk it. My mercenary contacts aren't nearly so high-profile, nor do they have to do things by the book, if you know what I mean." Willow quipped.</p><p>"Yeah, I gotcha." She sighed back.</p><p>The next forty minutes or so passed by blissfully quick. Willow had grown a highly-pressurized club for Noceda to use as a substitute baseball bat, and Luz spent her time picking up a great variety of seeds from Willow when she wasn't darting from window to window. Ever full of great ideas even under the stressful circumstances, Luz had thought to call their messenger demon using Blight's whistle and send it out to search for Owlbert. They didn't know if that would work, but it was worth a try. If the younger teen had Eda's staff with her it would make Noceda feel a<em> lot</em> better about bringing her into what could turn out to be a dangerous fight.</p><p>"Noceda. Luz." They jumped to attention when Willow spoke.</p><p>"He's set to meet you near the Library in roughly half an hour, that puts you guys there at just before five-thirty. Other than the guards watching the house there's no one up here in North res that you'll need to worry about, so your path should be clear. Be careful just in case. Get close, and he says he'll find you. I haven't grown to a room with Blight in it yet, but I'm still looking. You might find her before I do at this rate."</p><p>"That's fine, let's go. I'll be damned if she isn't there too." Noceda grabbed her willow-bat and patted down her pockets for the umpteenth time to make sure she had glyphs in all of them. She'd left her backpack at the safe house but she had what she needed.</p><p>"I'll let the guards see me one last time, then I'll go back into the mirror so I can think properly!" Luz chirped and struck a high-concentration pose with two fingers to each temple. Noceda could almost see how Luz's reflection-self might go up to one of the windows where a guard was, part the curtains and pout at one of them, then block it up again once she was seen. Willow had so far confirmed that they seemed to be none the wiser, including the guard she had stung with some kind of mild toxin. They had even changed shifts at some point.</p><p>"Good luck you two." Willow wished them as Noceda jogged for the plant-hallway. Luz ran up to the base of Willow's twisting mass of plants to give her a wide-armed hug and a genuine thank-you, then they snuck out and around the back of the house to begin their rescue mission. And it <em>would</em> be a rescue mission this time, now that they knew Amity was there and almost for sure that Blight would be as well. There was no way Noceda would let them down this time!</p><p>
  <em>I'm coming, Blight! I'm coming for you. Just hold on a little longer!</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Blight Manor - 4:24 pm</p><p> </p><p>The dark was all-encompassing. Even the window was boarded up. The only sliver of light was coming from under the door.</p><p>Every muscle in Amity's body was trembling and she wrapped her arms around herself like she could squeeze the terror out. Her shoulders were nearly up to her ears.</p><p>She waited. Every heartbeat thundered through her. This didn't feel like that night at school, with festivities and high expectations and a special someone who wanted to help her. This heavy malice felt endless. A boundless, baseless lust to steal all the warmth and certainty from her.</p><p>"Amity..."</p><p>The voice called to her airily. She'd recognize that voice anywhere.</p><p>"Amityyy~"</p><p>It was Luz's voice. Of course it was Luz's voice.</p><p>Taking a breath felt like drawing water into her lungs, the air was so thick.</p><p>"I know it's you, Grometheus!" She called into the echoing darkness. Maybe if she could put up a strong enough front, she would believe she had the courage to bear this. "I beat you before, so stay back!"</p><p>The sourceless voice chuckled softly.</p><p>"You did, didn't you?"</p><p>Amity's eyes darted frantically, but there was nothing to see. She turned around so that the sliver of light coming from under the door would at least tell her which way was down.</p><p>"I remember you."</p><p>The voice was much closer, she couldn't help but flinch away. The sliver of light was gone. Where was the door?</p><p>"The witch who fell in love with a human~," A damp wisp of breath ghosted over the back of her neck. "Already so alone. Losing her would be just <em>terrible</em>, isn't that right?"</p><p>A pair of warm hands brushed down her upper arms, almost burning against her chilled skin.</p><p>"Don't touch me!" She yelped and lurched forward blindly. She reached out with a hand to try and feel for the wall. Her shaking fingers met an unseen face in the darkness.</p><p>Amity suppressed a shriek and recoiled. As her breath sped up, her head got lighter and lighter. Passing out might be a blessing, but she was too afraid to give up what control she had left.</p><p>"Why? We both know you yearn for comfort." The monster said using Luz's honeyed tone. Luz would never sound so venomous!</p><p>Something silky-smooth trailed over her shoulder and a tiny spark ignited in Amity. She latched on to it with ever fiber of her being.</p><p>She raised her arm and swung wildly, hitting nothing. Before anything might stop her, the glow of her spellcircle lit up the darkness for mere seconds and then morphed into a pink blaze.</p><p>Luz was there. Her Grom outfit was exactly like Amity remembered. But her eyes were an empty white and the grin didn't match her face.</p><p>The figure receded into the darkness as Amity backed away, and she nearly tripped over what had to be one of the large glass jugs used to move Grometheus around. Her momentary distraction almost led to arms wrapping lovingly around her from behind.</p><p>"Don't!"</p><p>Dashing forward, she turned on her heel and faced the spot she'd just been in. Slight movements out of reach of the flames' glow told her that the figure was still there.</p><p>Amity's mouth was so dry that it was hard to swallow. She fed more magic into her flame and the brightness increased. The figure melted away into the shadows with a breath of disapproval.</p><p>She considered attempting to light the room on fire, but then a tanned arm slid along her own, following as she tried to flinch away. It was like trying to shake off your own shadow. With a little whimper she saw another hand reach out of the darkness and the two clasped around her hand gently, smothering the flame to peek and lick around their fingers.</p><p>"We are sensitive to the light." Luz's lips murmured in her ear. "Please don't make too much of it."</p><p>With a fury that she didn't even know she still possessed, Amity yanked her hand away and allowed her handful of fire to swell into a small inferno. It didn't penetrate the darkness as it should have, but it revealed the nursery floor around her and she glared at the ominous caricature of Luz in her strange, but nice dress clothes.</p><p>"Have it your way then~" She sing-songed and stepped closer.</p><p>"I'll throw it at you!" Amity warned, wide eyes locked on Luz's singed hand as it reached for her.</p><p>"No need, my love. No need."</p><p>She scooped a little of Amity's flames and watched merrily as they began to crawl up her arm. Amity's eyes darted between the fabric of her tuxedo fraying over sizzling flesh and the increasing pain on Luz's face. Her expression was quickly morphing from pleasant to barely-contained agony.</p><p>"Wait... wait..!" Amity whimpered, and Luz began laughing in a way that sounded more like fractured crying. She hugged her burning arm to her chest, lighting more of herself on fire.</p><p>Backing away and cancelling the spell didn't stop it. Amity's hand drifted to her face in horror as the girl crumpled to her knees, bawling for her mother.</p><p><em>It's not real, it's not real..!</em>  She tried desperately to remind herself as the blaze got brighter and the wailing pierced her ears.</p><p>"It feels real!" Luz screamed, coughing flames. "Amity! It burns! <strong>It burns!</strong> It hurts so bad! HOW COULD <em>YOU DO THIS..!"</em></p><p>Her smoking form fell over and curled up on the ground, quickly going still. Embers lit up the spaces inside her remains, little fractures along her blackened bones glowed with the heat contained inside. Luz was dead.</p><p>
  <em>Luz was dead.</em>
</p><p>By the time Amity had processed even part of what she'd just seen, her throat was already hoarse from screaming. When she couldn't draw breath deeply enough to continue, she cried. She was sick until the dry-heaving felt like knives in her stomach. She couldn't feel her legs.</p><p>"..please... please... please... please..." She didn't even know what she was pleading for.</p><p>A pale light crept in past her trembling fingers. Somewhere in her foggy brain she hoped past all hopes that Odalia was standing at the door, ready to give her another chance to.. do whatever.</p><p>Amity looked up to see a floating light ball illuminating Luz's sad features. Her mouth gaped, and the human cautiously spread her arms invitingly from where she kneeled.</p><p>"Oh Amity..." She whispered softly. Amity made a noise that she couldn't even describe and crawled forward into the embrace. She clung to Luz, the only warm thing left for her in this world of darkness.</p><p>"Oh Amity..." Luz cooed gently, and stroked her back. "Oh, oh, Amity."</p><p>"I'm sorry.. I'm so sorry..!" She sobbed. Luz was so soft, and those arms tightening around her felt so strong and grounding.</p><p>"I know you are, Amity. But... how could you do it?"</p><p>It wasn't the words so much as something in the tone.. a tiny undercurrent of sound that was alien amongst that which was meant to be loved, meant to be reassuring. She struggled in Luz's tight grasp.</p><p>"How could you hurt me like this? I would never hurt you."</p><p>"Let me go!" She rasped. It's not her, <em>it's not her!</em></p><p>She got her arms in between them enough to force some meager distance, but Luz locked hazel eyes on her face and Amity was lost in how real they were.</p><p>"I guess you don't like me after all." Luz leaned in closer, those eyes going cold. "I wanted to be your home."</p><p>"STOP IT!" Amity hated that her voice sounded so strained, so creaky and weak and she shoved until those oppressive arms tore off of her. "Stop twisting her words!"</p><p>She sniffled pathetically, but the sound of wet gasping made her look up. She hadn't noticed her hands slathered with blood.</p><p>Luz's chest was caved in, right where Amity had pushed her away. The girl's expression was so shocked and confused, blood poured from her mouth, and Amity forgot for a few more seconds that this was just a monstrous parody. Her dripping fingers dug into her scalp while her jaw worked soundlessly.</p><p>"You're dangerous, Amity." Luz gurgled. The light in her eyes dimmed and she slumped forward, riding out the death throes from her supposed blunt force trauma.</p><p>Her voice continued to whisper around the room.</p><p>"You're becoming a monster."</p><p>The sounds of both their ragged breathing eventually whittled down to just Amity's. When she was finally able to hear her own thoughts again, a ball of pale light flickered into existence. Yet another Luz with hollow eyes looked down at her with a pitying expression, ready to keep up the charade for as long as her victim could bear it for.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Near Bonesborough Library - 5:21 pm</p><p> </p><p>"Maybe we should get closer?" Luz offered.</p><p>They were crouched behind a wagon full of old empty crates and had a direct visual on the library, but no sign of the 'stealth master' they were supposed to meet. There weren't many people walking about, but they tried to stay out of sight to be completely safe.</p><p>Noceda scratched idly at her chin and looked to be weighing some options.</p><p>"Willow said they would find us as long as we were close. I'd send up some kinda sign that we were here but that might alert the wrong people. Let's just give this guy a few more minutes before we do anything."</p><p>"Good idea." Tom's deep rumbling voice answered quietly.</p><p>"WHA-!" Luz's immediate reaction to yell and then clamp her hands over her mouth were mirrored so perfectly by Noceda that their first view of the demon crouching next to them was of him chuckling.</p><p>Gaining her voice back a bit faster than her gasping older counterpart, Luz stared slack-jawed at the green-skinned demon and then pointed so close to his face as to make his beady black eyes cross to follow it.</p><p>"I remember you! You pushed me and my friends over a cliff!"</p><p>Noceda shook her head to presumably clear out the shock and she screwed up her face in concentration. She looked like she was trying hard to recognize his face.</p><p>"Well little lady, not so sure I recall that, but I do remember this one." The demon jerked a thumb good-naturedly at Noceda. "Don't think you'd much remember me though, you were pretty plastered when we caught you guys stomping around in that animated house of yers." The older teen's brows shot up in recognition and Luz was scandalized.</p><p>"OOH, now I remember which night Willow was talking about!"</p><p>"You drank <em>alcohol?!" </em>Luz hissed at her. "You wouldn't have been old enough!" She narrowed her eyes in disapproval which got her a mildly-irritated huff from Noceda.</p><p>"Yeah, not the time. Anyways, you're the supposed 'stealth master' Willow told us about?" She jerked her chin in question.</p><p>"Name's Tom. Excited to be workin' with you guys. Never done business with humans before, hehe." Tom was a fairly large demon, thick-set and a touch taller than Noceda. Luz had a hard time seeing him as the 'stealthy-type', but then again, he <em>did </em>sneak up on them both..</p><p>"I'm Luz, and, well.. she's Luz too but just call her Noceda." Luz started, then the older teen jumped in. "Yeah, alright, so now that you're here, you're going to get us to the Blight place lickety-split, right?"</p><p>"That's the game plan. But before we do, I'm figgering we want to wait a few minutes. Got a hunch going on, and I've learned to trust the gut, you know?" He chuckled.</p><p>Luz was starting to like this oddball, but Noceda was eager to go and the older teen ended up arguing against waiting for the few minutes he'd asked for in the first place.</p><p>Luz was bouncing on the fronts of her shoes and feeling increasingly anxious while Noceda insisted they get moving.</p><p>"-get that you're a professional or whatever but we can't just-.. Gus?!"</p><p>Luz's head snapped to face Noceda and she followed her gaze down the street somewhat. Sneaking out of an alley between houses was indeed a tall-looking witch in a hooded robe, and even with the shadow cast over his face his sudden grin was unmistakable!</p><p>Noceda darted around her and Tom to clap the tall witch in a one-armed hug once he'd carefully made his way over and ducked behind the wagon with them.</p><p>"I can't believe I actually found you guys! I <em>knew </em>you were up to something! You're Tom, right? Part of Mawey's old gang!" Gus chattered excitedly as he threw his hood back.</p><p>"Wait, Mawey, like, your co-Captain that made us go see the council yesterday?" Noceda suddenly stiffened up, and Luz flinched back in alarm as well.</p><p>"That's the one!" Gus said cheerfully, but then he seemed to clue in on her and Noceda's panic. "Don't worry you guys, Tom's done jobs for Willow before! I've seen him at her place once or twice."</p><p>"How did you get away from all the people watching you?" Luz asked, poking her head around Noceda to see the tall witch properly. His posture took on a decided swagger while he explained that he swapped himself out for an illusion and went after Tom once the demon started making arrangements to take the rest of the day off.</p><p>Luz snickered at the similarly decoy-based nature of both their escape plans, but Noceda was pinning Tom with a heck of a stink-eye.</p><p>"You didn't know Gus was following you?" She tilted her chin stubbornly. "Some master of stealth. No offense, Gus." Her jabs seemed to just make the demon chuckle again, even though Gus looked thoughtful now as well.</p><p>"I kinda figgered he might want in on this whole deal, seein' as he's the one who made your little witch-hunt so high profile. I <em>let </em>him follow me, and I made sure he wasn't followed in turn."</p><p>"Mhm." Noceda hummed, entirely unconvinced. Even Luz thought the explanation seemed a bit too convenient..</p><p>"Well, he's here now." The demon said merrily, then he pulled out Gus's sword and sheath from somewhere in his thick robe. "Also ya prolly want this back, yeah? Might need it where we're going."</p><p>Gus's eyes went saucer-wide and he immediately looked down at his left hip, only pulling them away again to gape at the demon and wordlessly accept his own weapon. Evidently the 'stealth master' was adept enough to nick Gus's sword while they were both on the move with him none-the-wiser!</p><p>"Anywho, let's get a move-on shall we? Got us some hoity-toity feathers to ruffle, hehe!" Tom grinned at the lot of them, and Luz couldn't help but grin back. She was feeling better about this plan with each passing moment!</p><p> </p><p>It didn't take long to get to the wall that cut off the unsafe East residential district from the rest of the city; It was on the other side of the Library after all. As it turned out, their demon companion used an illusory flame similar to the type that Blight would cast when they were camping out in the woods.</p><p>"We're gonna use a passage that me 'n Willow set up several months ago for recon stuff. While we're crossing under those there high-rise buildings try to stay right on my tail, alright? There's definitely a few alarm seals 'n maybe witches monitoring around here 'n we don't wanna get seen."</p><p>Luz nodded along with the two other teens and the four of them swiftly crossed over the few streets and tall buildings that lay between them and Willow's towering wall of plants. Once they got close enough the green-skinned demon looked like he was counting steps from some landmark only he was seeing. Sure enough, when they reached the wall, there was an old beat-up office desk that they could shift out of the way to reveal a small tunnel through the twisting foliage, metal and rock. They weren't given the all-clear to stray far from their guide or even talk much until they had made it about fifteen minutes away from the wall.</p><p>"Okay, there won't be anyone important listening for us this far out. We'll just keep an eyeball open for fuglies and head on down to the treeline where them Blights are."</p><p>"Sounds good. Thanks. I mean it." Noceda offered the demon a nod even though he was at the front, and he grunted good-naturedly back. Then she glanced sheepishly at Gus and looked like she was at a loss for words. It was kind of sweet actually, Luz thought to herself with a little smile.</p><p>"Gus, I... I'm really sorry about the mess we got you into with all this. I know you're risking a lot to be here with us, and I'm really thankful for your help, seriously."</p><p>"Don't worry about it. I told ya I've got your back and I do." He quipped back with a half-smirk. "I'm just gonna have your back and.. try to stay on the down low too."</p><p>"I should hope so, hehe." Tom interjected from up ahead. "I'd imagine you windin' up in hotter water could get you 'n nearly everyone loyal to ya thrown out of Bonesborough. Assuming you don't put up a fuss or y'do an' the council folk don't fall in."</p><p>The heavy ramifications of Gus getting caught helping them were at odds with the demon's jovial tone, and Luz shook her head to force her focus off of their discussion. Politics were adult stuff and she needed to get her game face on! They were here to save Amity, and Blight, that's what was important right now!</p><p>The abandoned neighbourhoods were becoming sparser with buildings as the properties grew more expansive and the individual houses larger. Their trip had been blessedly free of any accidents or unfortunate run-ins with the corrupted locals too, which was a great sign as far as Luz was concerned! They were in a very ritzy backyard when they finally spotted Blight Manor atop it's hill.</p><p>"There it is!" Luz pointed out excitedly. It was actually kind of pretty with the sun beginning to set far off to their right and painting a gradient across their field of view.</p><p>She shuffled up closer to their demon guide. "Hey, would it be alright if I used my whistle to let our messenger demon guy know where we are? I'm really hoping that it leads our palisman friend to us but since we're being so sneaky I'm afraid that they can't find us."</p><p>Tom debated the question for a few seconds and then replied, "Yeah, I suppose. But do it now while we're still way out here peepin' at the place. Much closer and I'd be worried about somethin' else hearing it too."</p><p>Luz nodded and pulled out the whistle she'd received from Blight something like thirty hours ago. It seemed like a lot more time had gone by since she'd had her heart-to-heart with the witch and then took off to go make up with Amity. She brought the little instrument to her lips and blew, already knowing not to expect to actually hear anything since its tone was supposed to only be perceived by the demon it was linked to.</p><p>
  <em>I really hope Owlbert can make it to us in time. I know he'd be a big help!</em>
</p><p>"You guys hang tight for a bit. I'm gonna scope out the best way to approach and see who might be prowling around aimin' to keep us out. Gimme 'bout twenty minutes give'r-take. The darker it gets the better for us too I say, so keep patient."</p><p>With that, Tom-the-stealth-master melted into the surrounding trees and foliage that made up the property barrier and the three of them were left to wait.</p><p>"... so. You said Willow saw little Blight in there for sure, but you haven't said anything about actual Blight yet." Gus started a bit awkwardly to Noceda. Luz grimaced at the topic. She knew it had been bothering Noceda this whole time that they still hadn't actually confirmed the older witch's presence in the house.</p><p>"She's in there. I know she is." Noceda murmured stiffly, and that was the end of that discussion. With their proximity to the house now she'd become increasingly quiet and focused. Luz started to feel a bit antsy with the heavier atmosphere and went through her pockets to make sure she still had all of her glyphs and seeds where she needed them.</p><p>
  <em>When we get to Amity I'm going to hug her until her head pops off. And apologize until my tongue falls off. Amity I really, really can't wait to see you, please please <strong>please</strong> be okay.</em>
</p><p>It was nearing the twenty-minute mark when she heard a small rustling in one of the trees somewhere behind them. She looked up and was relieved to see that their messenger demon had indeed found them, but her heart fell when the critter seemed to be alone.</p><p>There was a second bout of rustling, and since she was actually peering up into the branches now it was accompanied by the leaves parting way for-</p><p>"Hoo!"</p><p>"Owlbert!" Luz cried out happily and threw her arms wide when the little palisman got close enough. His feet were locked into the staff so he just kind of fluttered into her chest and she wrapped him up in a thankful embrace.</p><p>"Ohh Owlbert I'm so glad you came! Thank you!" She nuzzled the top of his wooden head and then locked a huge beaming smile on the little eyeball-headed crow critter still up in the tree. "And thank you so much for helping him find us! You're great at your job!"</p><p>The messenger demon blinked down at her and made a noise that could possibly be described as a mechanical little cooing.</p><p>A third bout of rustling leaves.</p><p>"We will remember to keep our voices down when actually infiltrating dangerous territory, yeah?" Tom asked slyly as he appeared out of the gloom. The whole sky was awash in deeper oranges and light purples and he was actually kind of hard to discern from the foliage around him even though he stood in plain sight.</p><p>"Oops! Sorry." Luz clapped a hand over her mouth and Owlbert coo-laughed from her other arm. She stuck a tongue out at him and then adjusted herself to stand tall and proud with the staff properly positioned in her left hand. She was ready to do this! So ready!</p><p>"You got a way in?" Gus asked eagerly, and Noceda popped her neck loudly and swung her willow-bat in a tight set of arcs. She looked deadly focused.</p><p>"Be disappointing if I didn't! Alright, follow me. Let's get you crazy kids in that big scary house and see what happens!" The demon cheered gleefully, although quietly~.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Next Chapter: A Blightmare on Hellm Street - Stay Alive</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Stay Alive ( baptism by fire )</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warning: I have been both looking forward to and dreading this chapter since before the first paragraph of the story was typed up. Take that for what it's worth I suppose.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Blight Manor - 6:32 pm</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Edric's footsteps were slow, but crisp against the wooden floor of the hallway. His approach didn't sound so much ominous as it did neutral. He wasn't weighed down by his sins, nor his guilt. He just was.</p><p>Over-long nails scratched lightly against the door of the nursery while he fumbled with the handle; it was a manageable annoyance. The seals that helped keep Grometheus and other magical elements within the room were calm. There were no sounds coming from the other side of the door either. These were little hints for the witch of what he might expect since having left the young counterpart to his sister here two hours ago.</p><p>There was no gaudy creaking of metal hinges when the door slowly swung into the room. The only sounds were those of shadows and fears as they reluctantly fled the harsh glare of the witch's lamp in the hall. They muttered, and hissed, and undraped themselves of the little form sitting on the floor.</p><p>You couldn't see Amity's face for the world, buried into her knees as it was, and those in turn reinforced by arms wrapped around tightly enough to break the bones of a lesser creature. So resolute to hold her defense, she barely flinched when the spectre who had been carding a tender hand through her hair ripped away to escape the light.</p><p>"Mother says you may come out now." Edric says simply to her.</p><p>It takes a moment or two for Amity to trust what her ears tell her. She raises her head to look at him. It takes a few long seconds more for her to hope that what her eyes are telling her is true. The young witch struggles to get wobbly legs under her and a ghostly chorus follows as she stumbles out of the room. The voices call for her; They beg her not to go.</p><p>Edric shuts the door, silencing the desperate pleading. He leads her down the hall. Then down the stairs.</p><p>In contrast to the single-lamp of the upper floor, the living room is rather brightly lit. None of the light is from outside; It is nearly sun-down. A grandfather clock ticks-tick-ticks.</p><p>Amity is waiting for someone to acknowledge her. She doesn't want to interrupt her father, who is blankly pouring over outdated reports, nor her mother, enraptured as she is by her upside-down book.</p><p>Eventually, Odalia chooses to let her attention wander to her youngest daughter. The child certainly looks more obedient now. If just a bit messy, as children sometimes tend to be. She is a patient woman, however.</p><p>"Come closer darling." Odalia says gently. She can see that the punishment for misbehaviour took quite the toll. The girl has earned a little softness. "Have you learned your lesson?" She asks, and then waits patiently.</p><p>Somewhere deep down, there is still an indignant fire burning. She has no strength to tend to it now though. Amity merely lets her chin dip low enough to seem like a nod. A shameful submission, but with it she might be allowed some sanctuary.</p><p>Mother is pleased with her. She says, "Good," and tells her to do her lines. When she finishes writing she is to bring them down for inspection and then do homework until bedtime.</p><p>Amity nods, accepting the instructions. She leaves the room without saying a word.</p><p> </p><p>~ * ~</p><p> </p><p>Outside Blight Manor - 7:13 pm </p><p> </p><p>They approached the house cautiously. There were a lot of windows set in the great big house to match the many rooms, though none of them revealed what was inside. Their demon companion was targeting a room on the second floor, the north-east corner, for their infiltration. The sky's purple-orange wash was getting duskier by the second.</p><p>"How come there's no guards around this time?" Luz asked softly, not really minding who answered. The tension and silence was making her anxious.</p><p>"Arrogance, most likely." Gus supplied, but didn't offer more than that.</p><p>With a nimbleness that just didn't suit his bulky frame, Tom scaled the side of the building until he reached a good spot to perch. A trio of spellcircles overlapped to create a glowing hole in the wall, and Luz could see what must have been the ceiling of the room inside. She didn't understand the intricacies of his stealthy magic's subdual of the various protection spells laid on the house, but the interaction made the area around the portal look like it was disintegrating, which was neat.</p><p>To save themselves the climb, Luz just rode up on Owlbert with Noceda sitting behind her. It was kinda funny that their first ever staff ride together was part of a breaking-and-entering..</p><p>Noceda insisted on going in first and carefully transferred herself from the staff into the room through the portal. After a brief check, she waved Luz in. Gus was climbing up after them with just as much ease as their demon guide.</p><p>"I'll keep the hole open for you guys until you get back or I see you exit another way. Or if things get too dicey, hehe. Good luck!" Tom waved at them from outside. He kept one hand immersed in the outer ring of the magicked-up door and the other was holding a little ball of illusory fire.</p><p>Noceda lit up a light glyph and pulled it apart into three smaller orbs, handing one to her and Gus and keeping the third for herself.</p><p>"It kind of looks like a mini classroom, but then it got hit by a tornado." Luz murmured as she took in the sight of scattered books and papers, toppled chairs, and even the desks looked like they had been shoved out of place. She could only see parts of the room at a time with her softly glowing little ball.</p><p>Noceda snorted and kept silent while she crept over to the door leading out of the room. It was open a few inches. She held her light further back and peeked out cautiously.</p><p>"It's the hallway. I don't see anyone."</p><p>Luz followed her after the older teen nudged the door open wider and slipped out. To their immediate right was one end of the hall with a curtained window; a dimly glowing barrier hummed ominously over it. Across from the room with desks was a mostly closed door. There were several doors actually, this was a long hallway and the rooms seemed to be quite large.</p><p>There was a single bright lamp approximately halfway down the hall from where they were. It cast a harsh glare on the door nearest to it. Other than that, Luz couldn't see any other light sources aside from their own.</p><p>No, wait a sec...</p><p>"There's light coming from under that door. Second one on the right." Luz whispered to Noceda and pointed. She saw the nod out of the corner of her eye since she was already sneaking forward. Luz was far too anxious to begin checking all the rooms for Amity to get an affirmation for her every action.</p><p>Just as Luz rested a few fingers on the doorknob, she winced at the creaking sound behind her that must have come from Gus as he left the desk-room. She heard a whispered, "sorry!" and she shook her head to help shuffle her nerves back into place. Noceda was next to her now and let go of her light glyph to hold her willow-bat with two hands, ready to strike at anything on the other side of the door if need be.</p><p>Luz gently nudged the door so it swung into the room slowly and her eyes quickly found the source of light (she'd describe it as a desk-lantern if asked).</p><p>Slouched in her little chair with an elbow on the desk and holding her head up, was Amity. She was writing something down on a sheet of paper and seemed so tired that she didn't even notice them in the doorway.</p><p>Despite the gloomy atmosphere and dim lighting, Luz felt like she could see all of the room's colours as if it were the middle of day and her chest couldn't contain the huge breath of relief she tried to draw in!</p><p>"Amity!" Luz whisper-yelled as she let go of her glyph light and dashed across the room. She quickly placed Eda's staff down so that she would have both of her arms for the biggest hug ever, all the while not picking up on how tense Amity had gotten nor how wide her eyes were as she slowly turned her head to face them.</p><p>Noceda was whispering something kind of urgently at her but it needed to wait. Luz leaned over a bit so she could throw her arms around Amity's shoulders and bury her face into the side of her neck. She may had bumped the poor witch's chin in her haste, but Amity was finally here in her arms!</p><p>"Luz!" Noceda hissed behind her and a sharply insistent pair of fingers jabbed her shoulder. Luz wanted to snuggle in tighter but the sense of something being wrong with this picture was belatedly setting off warning bells in her head. Amity had not only stiffened up with the contact, but was shaking and her breathing was speeding up.</p><p>With a sense of dread, Luz pulled back but couldn't quite let her hands drift off those slim shoulders and she actually <em>looked</em> at the green-haired witch properly.</p><p>
  <em>oh.. oh no..</em>
</p><p>Amity was... well, she looked like she was face to face with a ghost. Or perhaps that wasn't right; ghosts were probably common in this world. Rather, it seemed like she was witnessing a horrible nightmare that she wanted to run from but couldn't move. And Luz was the nightmare.</p><p>"Amity! It's me, Luz! We're here to save you!" Somewhere waaaaay far back in her fantasy-loving brain she was clapping her cheeks in surprise that she actually said the, 'we're here to save you!' line from like every hero story. The rest of her quickly began to acknowledge that this certainly didn't <em>feel</em> like a heroic reunion however.</p><p>So very slowly, a pale hand lifted and fingers contacted feather-lightly with one of Luz's arms. It could barely be called a push with how delicate she was being, but it was clear now that Amity wanted her to let go. Luz swallowed down the hurt and carefully backed away. Only a step or two though.</p><p>"Is she alright?" Gus whispered as he sidled into the room. He was craning to see around both of them, and Luz heard Noceda back off a bit and try to control her breathing.</p><p>Luz's heart was absolutely thundering while she glanced back at the older teens. She was at a loss. This wasn't what she expected <em>at all.</em> Noceda was getting more and more ashen with each passing second and it made Luz feel a bit queasy.</p><p>She focused on Amity again and the witch was scanning the three of them with a mixture of fear and disbelief on her face. After a few long seconds, her lips parted and she spoke in a raspy whisper, "Is this real?" The way she said it, like she couldn't bear to hope, told Luz that without a doubt she had failed the witch.</p><p><em>Some champion,</em> she hissed to herself.</p><p>Beating herself up would have to wait for later though. Right now they had to get Amity out of here. Luz had to find the strength to lead her.</p><p>"Yeah. We're real, Amity. Let's get you out of this creepy place, okay?" She tried for a confident smile and hoped her voice alone could convey the invitation that she so desperately wanted to offer with her hand.</p><p>Amity looked so torn. Her fearful eyes drifted down to the paper she had been writing on and Luz followed her gaze. Some of the words stood out, but before she could put together the whole sentence Amity noticed where her attention was. She gasped and threw herself over the desk, trying to cover the paper and spilling her little pot of ink.</p><p>"Amity, we have to go." Luz heard Noceda whisper urgently from behind her. "Do you know where Blight is? She's here too, right?"</p><p>Something about the older teen's voice or words seemed to introduce a frantic sort of confusion in Amity's demeanor and she looked up at Luz again, golden eyes searching. Luz sucked in a breath, hope making adrenaline surge through her and she had to fight the impulse to reach out for the witch. Instead, <em>gloriously</em>, Amity reached out for her.</p><p>Trembling fingers wrapped around Luz's arm and she squeezed, hard. It hurt, and Luz winced with a little, "ow.." escaping her lips but her reaction spurred an incredible energy in the witch as she launched out of her chair to grab at Luz's face and inspect her desperately.</p><p>"It's really actually you this time?" Amity asked in a small voice. Luz put every bit of herself into the genuine smile she offered and cautiously touched the witch's shaking elbows hovering between them. "It's really actually me." She assured her.</p><p>Noceda was suddenly beside them. "I don't want to sound insensitive but we've gotta keep moving." She impatiently murmured. "Amity, where's Blight?"</p><p>The witch looked a bit shell-shocked and those wide eyes focused on Noceda for a few beats before she answered with a wavering, "I don't know.."</p><p>The older teen huffed in repressed frustration and she tried instead, "Do you know if she's here? Have you seen her in the house?"</p><p>Her nod seemed to be all Noceda needed to both shed and pick up two different types of anxiety and she nodded distractedly while backing off.</p><p>With the proximity she had and Amity momentarily facing away, Luz was able to notice that her clothes were different and her hair was damp. She didn't necessarily smell soapy-clean, but it seemed like the witch had very recently showered and changed into an outfit that was a little too big for her small frame. The scrapes and bruises that peppered her neck and arms made Luz's blood freeze in her veins. When Amity turned to look at her, she realized there were some on her face too.</p><p>It took a lot of strength to not let her expression go ugly. Now wasn't the time to lose herself to anger.</p><p>Luz shoved the bad thoughts in her head away and picked up Eda's staff, then tried to lead Amity to the door with just the connection of fingers-on-elbow she had been allowed. They were stepping out into the dim hallway when Noceda started speaking to them. Gus was quietly descending the staircase on the other end of the hall.</p><p>"Luz, take Amity to where Tom is keeping that hole open and get her out of here. Gus and I are going to find Blight and we'll meet up with you. Keep alert out there." She whispered. Luz wasn't sure if she was about to protest or agree but she didn't get a chance to respond when she noticed someone standing behind Noceda.</p><p>The older teen must have picked up on her alarm because she suddenly whipped around and slammed her bat into Edric's side, causing the young man to double over with a wheeze. Noceda went to grab him by his mess of green hair but pulled her hand back with a hiss of pain.</p><p>"Ow! Shit, he's pointy!" She cursed, her hand starting to bleed from several small cuts and punctures. Luz took advantage of the bat-induced stunning and brandished Owlbert with a glyph between her fingers, encasing the witch up to his shoulders in ice.</p><p>Edric frowned at his gleaming entombment and drawled, "Oh no, I have been defeated. But I will never tell you that Mittens is in the training hall, probably getting her ass kicked by Emira over and over again. Never."</p><p>Luz tried to watch him warily and keep an eye on Amity as she backed away a few steps. Noceda slammed a hand against the cold encasement and glared at the trapped witch.</p><p>"Where is the training hall?" She demanded. Edric rolled his eyes at her.</p><p>"Pfft." He scoffed, "I'm not supposed to help with escape attempts. FATHE-" His sudden yell was cut off by Luz encapsulating the rest of him in ice. His relatively nonchalant expression was frozen in place but his eyes still blinked in surprise.</p><p>Noceda whirled and Amity gulped when the older teen fixed her with an intense look. "Amity. Where's the training hall."</p><p>"You're going to trust what he says? He could be lying!" Luz waved at the flash-frozen witch incredulously.</p><p>"U-um.. the training hall is downstairs.. turn right and past the living room. It's the second door on the left." She stuttered out and Noceda gave her a sharp nod then looked at Luz.</p><p>"Both of you go. Now."</p><p>"Wait, Noceda maybe I should-" Luz began but stopped short when she felt trembling hands latch on to her own that held up Eda's staff. She peered at them in surprise and then locked gazes with Amity. She wasn't saying anything but she didn't have to. Her eyes were begging far louder than words could.</p><p>
  <em>Right. Don't you dare let her down this time.</em>
</p><p>Luz nodded, and the witch sucked in a breath of relief. She turned to see Noceda backing away impatiently and she shot the older teen a quick, "Be careful, alright?"</p><p> </p><p>"You too. Now go!" Noceda waved towards the door that led into the room with desks and scattered books. She only watched the two younger teens for a moment as they galloped lightly down the hall and out of sight. Hopefully they would stay safe until Noceda could find Blight and get the hell out of here.</p><p>She cut around the Edric-sized ice block and made her way quietly but quickly towards the staircase Amity had mentioned and Gus had gone down only moments ago. When she passed the closed door that was bathed in the full glare of the only light source in the hallway she felt a deep sense of <em>wrongness</em>, and shuddered. Something evil was in that room. She wondered if it was Blight's parents.</p><p>Noceda was mostly down the stairs when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and saw Gus motioning at her. He was hovering near a double-doorway but out of sight of whoever might be inside that room. He was waving her over but cautioning her with a finger to keep quiet. She hit the ground floor, taking note of the front door that was not far off, and dashed over to her friend.</p><p>"They're in there." Gus whispered to her, indicating the room in front of them. There were quite a few lights on down here, leaving little room for sneaking about.</p><p>"Who?" She asked and inched forward, intending to peek in.</p><p>"Blight's folks. I heard someone shout but neither of them reacted."</p><p>Noceda cautiously looked around the edge of the doorway to see the man- Alador, if she remembered correctly- appearing to review documents spread out on a low coffee table. Across from him in her own fancy chair sat what's-her-name. She was engrossed in an upside down book that was levitating in front of her face. She had to be Blight's mom, but she looked all shrivelled up and her neck was too long, eww.</p><p>"I've got to get across." Noceda whispered back at Gus. Amity had said the training hall was two doors past the living room, so she needed to get to the other side without being seen. The longer they had to infiltrate without engaging, the better. If she could get to Blight before they were discovered (<em>"if </em>they were discovered<em>", </em>she reminded herself, perhaps too hopefully), then she might be able to help fight their way out.</p><p>Gus spun up a little blue spellcircle and Noceda saw the faintest hint of a shimmer in the doorway leading to the occupied living room.</p><p>"They won't see you. Do you want me to go with you or stay here and watch them?" He asked in a hushed voice. She was grateful for his willingness to let her lead.</p><p>"Yeah, stay here. Think you can handle that guy if things get wild?"</p><p>He flashed her a little grin that was half-confidence, half-nerves. Noceda took that for the answer it was and with a little gulp, tip-toed out into the open. Instincts were screaming at her to get to cover as quickly as possible but she stepped lightly and slowly across the double doors and thankfully reached the other side without issue. She sighed a little breath of relief and looked back to see Gus shooting her a thumbs up. She didn't hear anything from the living room.</p><p><em>So far, so good.</em> She thought to herself and crept along past the first door on her left and stopped at the second one. It was another set of ornate double doors, but this one was closed. She carefully pressed down on the handle of the right-hand door and gripped her bat tighter in her left hand.</p><p>Nudging the door open with the toe of her shoe broke whatever magical soundproofing the room had going on and Noceda could hear feet moving and voices. They sounded rather far off though, further than the room should have been big enough to allow. They also echoed like noises in a gymnasium would.</p><p>Someone, a woman, actually a few female voices, were laughing cruelly.</p><p>"Come on, little sister~. Stop laying around and get up. I'm sure you'll get one of us <em>eventually</em>. Try the fire again, at least it looks passably impressive."</p><p>Noceda could feel her blood boiling and her face flush with anger. She nudged the door open a little wider and peeked in. What she saw both confused her and pissed her off.</p><p>There were several witches stalking around someone crumpled on the floor. They all looked like Emira, not much older than Noceda remembered seeing her last, and she assumed they were illusions. The real Emira had to be the rough-looking piece of work on the outskirts of the ring of witches. She was smiling smugly but only the illusions were speaking.</p><p>"I said <em>get up, </em>weakling." One of the green-haired witches snarled and kicked <em>her</em> green-haired witch! That was Blight curled up on the floor!</p><p>Only Edric's strange warning from before stopped Noceda from blowing a fuse in shock and yelling bloody murder. She wanted nothing more than to tear that <em>bitch's</em> scalp off and make her eat it. But if she was powerful enough to take Blight down, then Noceda needed to be smart about this.</p><p>She pulled out a few glyphs and picked one with the plant symbol. The ink was dark and applied with a hard hand. She had been fuming at the time and was making them to calm down.</p><p>With narrowed eyes on her target, Noceda crouched down and slipped her hand into the room. She placed the glyph paper on the floor and concentrated. It wouldn't be the first time she had tried this little stunt, but she was quite a bit further away than the last times. She <em>would</em> make it work through.</p><p>
  <em>Focus. Put away your feelings for a moment. Sshh...</em>
</p><p>It was terribly difficult to push aside her fury, but she needed to concentrate or this wouldn't work.</p><p>
  <em>There needs to be a point. Push the plant into a point. Shoot, maybe it should be blunt like a thornvult in case my aim is off... no, it needs to be aerodynamic. Make it a point.</em>
</p><p>To help with the process, she closed her eyes and made up the image in her mind of what she wanted it to be. Usually making a plant grow perfectly straight was super hard, but she had experimented with this and it worked before.</p><p>She opened her eyes and coldly calculated how far her target was. She placed a finger on the glyph and made the connection, but didn't let it manifest yet.</p><p><em>Grow. </em>She commanded it. The magic surged, wanting to burst forth into spontaneous life, though it could not. Noceda wouldn't let it.</p><p>
  <em>I said <strong>grow.</strong></em>
</p><p>Sweat began beading on her forehead with the strain it took to hold the magic back. Little crackles of energy leaked out as it roiled, frustrated, just beneath the surface of the glyph like a hungry shark skimming under glassy calm waters.</p><p>Emira was snidely regarding her victim of torment, as were her illusory copies. They had no idea nor reason to notice the door to the training hall was slightly ajar or that a hand rested on the floor inches into the room. They didn't see Noceda's steely gaze hyper-fixated on one of them in particular.</p><p>The pressure was reaching almost unbearable levels but Noceda needed to be sure it would reach. She locked on, reminded the glyph of the form it needed to take, let her breath out slowly.. and let go.</p><p>A vine like a thick, twisting lance shot out of the glyph and grew twenty-three feet in less than two seconds. Where magic wasn't needed for bulk, it made up in control, and it went almost precisely where Noceda wanted it to. She didn't want to kill Emira, that was something Blight would have to permit, but what she saw the witch doing here merited a little skewering.</p><p>The point of the lance hit the real Emira in the shoulder so hard that it knocked her clear off her feet and had her skidding along the floor into the middle of the training hall. There wasn't any blood other than what was dribbling out of her mouth from presumably biting her tongue. Either Noceda had underestimated how hard a witch's bones were or something else was protecting the skin and muscle under her shirt. Judging from the quiet gasps of pain and how still her left arm went, she'd <em>definitely</em> dislocated that shoulder though.</p><p>Noceda pushed through the door now being held open with the knot of plant down by its corner and crowed, "Home run, bitch!". She dashed alongside the now stilled vine-lance and winded up with her bat, relishing the blank look on the unfortunate Emira-clone's face just before cracking her into a cloud of dispersed magic. The other four copies looked equally shocked and didn't retaliate, luckily they were not casted to think or act individually of their maker.</p><p>Her shoes made a sort of squeal against the floor as she swerved hard and fell to her knees harder than she'd meant to, such a rush she was in to touch her green-haired witch and assure her she was there. Blight laboriously tilted her head to stare incredulously at Noceda.</p><p>"God, you look awful." She threw caution to the wind and scooped the witch's face close so she could mash a kiss to her cheek. "Sorry I took so long."</p><p>Blight's mouth worked soundlessly and Noceda heard a wet hissing coming from where Emira had landed. Looking over confirmed that the older witch was <em>furious</em> and spitting through gritted teeth; her eyes flashed with pain and hatred right at Noceda which was both unnerving and extremely satisfying. Hopefully the witch would stay down, but it probably wouldn't take long for her to re-focus on her clones, and then they'd be in some hot water.</p><p>"Alright, upsy-daisy!" She hauled Blight to her feet and she thankfully stayed up, though the green-haired witch still looked at Noceda with utter bafflement. "Blight, snap out of it, we gotta go!" An insistent little push towards the door seemed to help and she shook her head vigorously. The Emira-clones looked like they were getting their bearings back as well, and suddenly Blight took off towards one of the walls that <em>distinctively</em> did not feature the way out!</p><p>"Blight where are you going!" Noceda dashed after her, jerking in confusion as the other teen nearly ran into a rack of swords but ignored them all in favour of a little thermos sitting innocently on the ground. She fumbled with the lid for a moment and gulped down some of the contents before whipping the thing across the room with such vehemence that it hit the far wall of the very large room and bounced.</p><p>The witch spun and wiped some grey liquid off of her chin, fixing Noceda with a frenzied sort of look. She thought for a second that Blight would attack her though she managed to croak out a mangled, "leks go", instead.</p><p>They hurried towards the exit when suddenly Blight grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her away just in time to avoid a blast of blue fire crashing into the sturdy double doors. If Emira's goal was to close the door that was still a little bit open, luckily the placement of Noceda's vine lance foiled it. Unfortunately, it had the secondary effect of being very loud.</p><p>"<em>What is going on here?!"</em>  A shrill voice yelled from well outside the large room. Noceda took a wild guess that it was probably momma-Blight.</p><p>Noceda flung herself through the big ornate door with Blight on her heels then grabbed the handle to pull it as shut as it would get with the base of her vine in the way. A hasty glyph slapped against the floor encrusted both doors, their handles and the gap between them with ice. <em>That should hold for a hot second,</em> Noceda hoped.</p><p>Just as she turned towards where she knew the front door was, Alador stepped out of the living room only to immediately get tackled back in by Gus.</p><p>"Make a run for it! I'll hold them off!" She heard him yell just before momma-Blight started squawking furiously at him. Noceda rushed to the living room to actually see Gus, sword in hand, facing off with Alador who was drawing himself up to his full height and channeling a dreadful seriousness.</p><p>"Be careful!" The words seemed so insufficient but she did as he directed.</p><p>Blight was already at the front door, and when her attempted spellcircle crackled and failed she reared back to kick it instead. Noceda was thankfully in place to catch her as the door and wall around it flashed and threw her back forcefully.</p><p>"You okay?" Noceda asked while Blight pushed off of her, throwing an anguished glare at force shield that shimmered almost tauntingly now that it had been activated. It took the poor witch a couple tries to make the words clear enough to hear and the shame on her face made Noceda want to smother it in what would likely be a very unappreciated hug right now.</p><p>"Guy need.. few migits.. to get som majic bak." She choked out finally. Noceda swallowed back her emotions best she could and slapped an ice glyph to the floor. When she stepped on it and a huge block of ice slammed into the door it <em>sounded</em> like an impressive impact but apparently the barrier was made of stronger stuff.</p><p>Messing around with this shit when there should still be a way out upstairs seemed pointless, so with a hasty, "Follow me!" Noceda began pounding up the stairs, not needing to check and see if the witch was following her. She threw a prayer for Gus that he would be okay for a few minutes.</p><p>They reached the upper floor in no time and Noceda could see the glistening block of ice on the other side of the hall. She reached the one glaring witch's lamp and the ominous door it shone on when she realised she couldn't hear Blight behind her and she turned to see the witch hesitating near the staircase.</p><p>"Blight, come on! We have a way out!"</p><p> What was she doing? Was she worried about Edric? "Don't worry about your brother, Luz froze him solid, he won't hurt you!"</p><p>She still wasn't moving so Noceda dashed back to her and noticed the sickening fear on her face. Blight wasn't saying anything but she looked to Noceda desperately. She had <em>never</em> seen that expression so strongly on the witch before. <em>What did these fuckers do to her?</em></p><p>The sound of swords clashing downstairs and Gus shouting authoritatively reminded her they were on extremely limited borrowed time. She reached out to cup Blight's elbow and asked in a rush, "Can I lead you?"</p><p>It may have been that she was shuddering so hard as to look like a nod, but Noceda chose to take it for permission regardless. She tightened her grip on the elbow in her palm and began insistently coaxing the ashen witch forward. Blight thankfully didn't stumble and she closed her eyes a few steps into the hallway but her breathing got erratic and she blindly grabbed for Noceda while they passed under the harsh lamplight.</p><p>Noceda shot the door a look, still feeling a malicious presence on the other side. Blight's parents were downstairs and both siblings accounted for, what the hell was in that room?</p><p>She realized that whatever it was, <em>that's</em>  what was frightening her trembling witch because once they passed the door she jerked back to awareness and ran down the rest of the hall, heedless of her frozen chunk of a brother.</p><p><em>Focus!</em> Noceda chided herself. She launched herself the rest of the way to the waiting Blight and directed her into the room with scattered desks and books. On the far wall glowed Tom's portal showing the dark forest of outside and the demon's eager face looking in at them.</p><p>"Looks like you guys are having fun. The kids were just through here." He said chipperly. <em>Oh thank god.</em></p><p>Blight clearly didn't need to be shown what to do next because the demon had to whip back to avoid her skidding exit through the portal. Whereas the witch could handle a slip-and-slide from two stories up, Noceda had to be more cautious climbing down. When her boots hit the ground she looked up at Tom who was still holding the portal open.</p><p>"Is the Capt'n coming too?" He asked, and Noceda licked her dry lips anxiously. Blight was watching her like a spooked deer and appeared ready to run for the hills.</p><p>"Can you open another one of those at the front of the house? Gus is fighting in the living room!"</p><p>The demon made a face that broadcasted his discomfort with getting too close to the fight and he jumped down to join them on the grass. His portal spiralled in on itself the moment he stopped touching it.</p><p>"Ehr, thing is, I'm here all clandestine-like. If them crazies in there get a whiff of my magic then I won't have mucha choice but to head outta here like my ass is on fire." He explained, at least having the decency to sound somewhat remorseful. Noceda began to argue but his head tilted down seconds before a vine shot out of the ground and wrapped around his entire leg, squeezing tightly. Looks like their long range plant-user was done with the cautious approach.</p><p>"Or we could go take a looksee, I suppose." He grumbled.</p><p>Noceda didn't get a chance to mentally thank Willow for the assist because a ghostly pinkish-purple hand materialized out of seemingly nowhere. It had a sort of transparent boneless arm leading into the wall of the manor. The sight of it made the demon's eyebrows shoot up in alarm and Willow's vine spasmed in the attempt to let him go as quickly as possible.</p><p>An aggressive clapping behind her drew Noceda's attention to Blight who then motioned frantically for them to run.</p><p>"Luz and Amity shouldn't be too far away, go find them! I'll join you once I've got Gus!" Noceda called to her and took off for the front of the house without waiting for a response. She didn't care if Tom was following her anymore; now that Willow had apparently revealed her presence Noceda doubted she'd continue being a passive player in this fight.</p><p>Like she'd guessed, more hands were collectively slinking out of the walls and vines of increasing thickness bursting out of the ground by the time she reached the west-facing wall where she and Luz had attempted to brute-force their way in before. Noceda wasn't sure whether to be relieved or not to see Blight take a stance with her when they stopped, though she looked angry.</p><p>There was hardly any light to see by other than a few decorative witch lamps and the eerie glow of the several ghostly appendages. The cloud cover was blocking out whatever illumination the moon could have otherwise provided.</p><p>Noceda hastily dug around for a light glyph and tapped it, giving her a little more to work with and she stuck several fire glyphs to her bat. She was going to attempt to blow the door off its hinges but then the large curtained-off windows got her attention and she smirked.</p><p>She had to dodge a pair of creepy wisp-hands and the third one may have tripped her up if one of Willow's vines hadn't started tangling with it instead. She reached the window and wound up, closed her eyes for some meagre protection and then smashed her glyph-covered bat into the glass.</p><p>The small explosion blew her off her feet to land harshly on her ass but it sure sounded like something had resulted from it!</p><p>Or, shit, perhaps not so much. The window itself was a jagged mess but the glow of a force shield with a bright little crack in it shone mockingly on the other side of the now burning curtains.</p><p>The thickest vine yet pulled itself out of the lawn and made to shoot forward and ram down the door but more pink-purple hands met it and pushed it off-course. Some of them were getting worryingly close to her and Blight too. This wasn't good.</p><p>Oh lovely, the front door was opening!</p><p>But it was Alador that came stomping out, so, that was shitty. The sporadic lighting couldn't obscure the pink-purple glow of his eye as it zeroed-in on Noceda.</p><p>The tall witch lunged towards her with his sword flashing in his grip and Noceda just managed to get her bat between them. There weren't any glyphs left on it but the man seemed to regard the weapon with caution. Well, for a moment at least, because then he curled his sword arm high around his shoulder for an attack!</p><p>Blight was suddenly where Noceda had been a second ago and this made Alador pause just long enough to drop the sword into his left hand and smoothly transition into a punch instead. Thankfully he couldn't keep up with her footwork as she feinted out of the way, and this close now Noceda could see why; his left pant leg was soaked red with blood from a slice behind the knee.</p><p>As if on cue, Gus crashed through the cracked barrier over the living room window with Emira wrapped around him. He kicked her off once he hit the grass but was twitching with lingering electric energy even as he stood. Light was flooding out of the open window from the living room and made it a lot easier to see, though Emira was quickly on her feet as well and shook off her minor residual shocks from the broken force shield.</p><p><em>Good god, sometimes I wish witches weren't so durable, </em>Noceda griped, though she was very relieved to see Gus still standing. She felt outmatched in this fight however. Every one of these blows being exchanged by any of them would be enough to shatter her if something connected. It was times like these that Noceda felt so very horribly fragile.</p><p>Alador made a grab for Blight and she gasped while stumbling away. She was trying to keep her distance, and so Noceda took the few precious seconds to snag a few glyphs for her bat. Both witches were moving too much for her to risk a long-ranged attack, so she stood ready for an opening and hoped it would come quickly.</p><p>There! Blight made up a force shield of her own and Alador paused to consider her. Noceda swung her bat into the trampled earth and jagged ice burst out of the ground in a line towards him. It was too slow to actually hit him, but he backed off at least to give Blight time to breathe and maybe gather enough magic for another spell.</p><p>With begrudging acceptance, Noceda knew she wasn't going to be the one to end this fight. All she could do was play the distraction and try to not die. They didn't even need to win really, they just needed to get away!</p><p>Whatever the glowing spectral hands were that flew around the property, it was a damn good thing that Willow seemed intent on foiling their attempts to grab at any of them. But it was obvious how much more clunky and costly Willow's networked magic was in comparison to these spells. She wasn't going to be able to hold them off much longer. Noceda had to jerk away from one that got too close before Willow could intercept it, and she tried to keep focused on Alador so he wouldn't sneak up on her. His glowing eye darted between her and Blight, and so long as he couldn't focus on either one of them maybe they could come up with something.</p><p>Oddly, the tall witch loosened out of his fighting stance and stared at Noceda. She had no idea what his deal was but she stared back, hoping that maybe he'd stand there long enough to get hit with something. Instead, he turned away and Noceda thought he might shift his target to Gus who was keeping Emira on her toes, but he was looking towards the manor.</p><p>Noceda shot a look at Blight who didn't seem to have any better idea of what was drawing his attention but they both snapped back to it when he faced them again and spun up a spellcircle. Nothing seemed to happen and that just made Noceda's stomach twist up harder.</p><p>He made a bee-line for her which prompted Blight to get in the way and put her shield between them, and he tried a few half-hearted swings with his sword which sparked off of it. Noceda took the opportunity to pull out some plant glyphs and she tapped one, letting vines crawl out of it to snake around Blight's shield and maybe trip him up. He backed off and disappeared into the gloom.</p><p>"Oh you bastard!" Noceda cried out, realizing that there was suddenly a lot less light than a moment ago. She couldn't see it, but little abominations were using their goopy bodies to smother the lamps around the property and a big flat one was fitting itself to the living room window frame, blocking out the greatest source.</p><p>Noceda couldn't see much other than Blight being illuminated by her shield and the ghostly hands as they continued to wrestle with Willow's vines. Her light glyph from earlier was gone and she scrambled to get another one out!</p><p>Blight's shield and lit-up figure scrambled back as something began attacking her, likely Alador. Noceda had to try and identify her glyphs by feeling for the magic in them and she knew how terribly vulnerable she was now.</p><p>A powerful light erupted over where Gus and Emira were and it left blinding after-images in Noceda's eyes before it abruptly went back out. Gus shouted angrily, pain evident in his voice, and it seemed like he couldn't concentrate on a defense, offence, <em>and </em>illuminate the battle field with Emira throwing herself recklessly at him.</p><p>Plunged back into darkness, Noceda's breaths sounded so loud in her ears and she hoped she didn't trip over one of Willow's vines while she dashed back from a spectral hand headed her way. Blight's pink shield went out and that only made Noceda's heart beat even harder. She finally felt the magic of a light glyph in her palm and she called forth the biggest orb she could manage!</p><p>The fucking glowing hands were targeting it! Their enemies knew she couldn't see well in the dark and her huge lumbering orb was immediately squished out of existence. Willow's magic and concentration must be waning because those hands seemed to be far less inhibited than they had been.</p><p>A long line of pink fire shot out from somewhere and it provided enough light to see the area around it but that wasn't going to be enough. Noceda's shaky fingers fumbled to pick out more light glyphs before the fire was put out or she was forced to move away from it.</p><p>Her glyphs came into clear focus, as did the details of her blood-covered hands and the grass around her and the twisting forest of vines covering the whole lawn like a huge spiderweb. Noceda looked up to see dozens, no, <em>hundreds</em> of little light balls shooting into the area and whizzing around the spectral hands with ease. Some of the balls started fluttering and butting up against Alador and Emira's faces, only to be replaced with more when they were swatted aside.</p><p>"Need some help?" Luz called from the edge of the property, several light glyphs slowly disintegrating away between her fingers while Owlbert fired out a continuous stream of light balls like some kind of angelic avian super launcher!</p><p>The whole area was bathed in a soft white glow and Noceda was both thankful and terrified to see the younger teen with Amity hovering behind her.</p><p>"Thanks Luz, but stay back there alright! Keep your eyes open!" Noceda shouted towards her and then focused back on the fight. With everything lit up Noceda felt a lot more confident.</p><p>It looked like Willow could only move one or two vines at a time now but the ghostly hands were slowing down too, and from what she could make out, Emira was bleeding from multiple slash wounds. Alador still looked unaffected but he was basically a robot, so she imagined he had to be getting tired too and it gave Noceda a boost of adrenaline. Blight was crouched over in a racer's start-up position, either to conserve energy or because she couldn't stand up straight anymore. Shit, one of her legs was sliced open.</p><p>Gus suddenly flooded the lawn with projections of himself, and between them and the persistent light balls Emira was being pushed back, snarling all the way. One of them, or perhaps the real Gus, dashed over to Blight since she was closer and helped her up. They started limping their way towards Noceda and she immediately turned her attention to Alador.</p><p>The awful bastard seemed to instinctively know which projections were merely images and which had actual mass as he countered or went right through Gus' various copies. Noceda used a fire glyph to hinder his movements but she still had to split her attention between him and ducking the grasping ghost-hands.</p><p>Alador seemed to reach a point where he was unable or unwilling to move further from the manor and he doubled back. His retreat was met with no resistance from Gus' clones and Noceda wanted to pump a fist in the air.</p><p>"He's backing off! Let's go!" She shouted near maniacally, covering Gus and Blight as they fast-limped past her towards Luz and Amity. She tried not to trip as she danced backwards and kept an eye on the man as he headed straight for where Emira was swinging wildly at a quartet of Gus' illusions and Luz's distracting light glyphs.</p><p>~*~</p><p>Luz was bouncing with an overabundance of adrenaline and nerves as Noceda called for them to high-tail it out of there. The older teen was keeping an eye on Mr. Blight while he met up with who Luz assumed was Emira. Together they made quick work of Gus' illusions but Luz yanked out a few fresh light glyphs to replace the crumbled bits between her fingers.</p><p>"Great job Owlbert, keep it up, okay!" She cheered and the palisman's eyes flashed with renewed vigor as the staff connected with her glyphs and more lights poured out in a near-blinding torrent.</p><p>Noceda was backing away carefully while Gus and Blight reached the sudden drop off that marked the edge of the property's lawn and met the paved staircase that gracefully arched away to the main gates. They were like twenty limp-strides away, and then could get Blight on Owlbert and make a run for it!</p><p>She was about to leap forward and meet them but her eyes narrowed in suspicion when Mr. Blight's close proximity to Emira resulted in a purple-ish flash and the younger witch collapsing. The tall man was holding what looked like a glowing light-blue ball and it seemed to drain into a spellcircle around his other wrist.</p><p>Luz's eyes flew open in recognition.</p><p>"We gotta hurry, he's doing that abomination clone thing from before!" She could hear Amity whimpering behind her and the sound of it drove an ice pick into Luz's heart. Even with the short period of time since actually exiting the building with the frightened witch, Luz was already feeling overwhelmed with how hurt she looked and acted. Every little noise out here spooked Amity awfully and convincing her to stick close enough to the big castle-looking house to wait for the others was both difficult and painful for both of them.</p><p>"Oh for fuck's sakes!" Noceda yelled with exasperation and stuck a few more glyphs to the bat Willow had made for her. She was breathing very hard and kept cursing as two Mr. Blight abominations stepped out of a wide glowing circle and flicked the slime off the material that made up their swords. The man's glowing ball was gone but he cast another spellcircle anyways and a third clone stepped out of its own circle. The tall witch fell forward onto his knees but that didn't stop the three blade-wielding blightominations from advancing.</p><p>"Get on Owlbert, hurry!" Luz shoved the staff at Blight which instantly cut off the stream of light spells and she dashed back to Amity and dragged her over despite her resistance. "You too, Amity! Get out of range!"</p><p>She was thankful to see that Blight was mounting the staff (though not without difficulty) and Gus let her go to huff and puff his way to stand with Noceda. Both teens were exhausted, scratch that, they were <em>all</em> exhausted. Luz's heart twisted at seeing Blight trying to pull Amity onto Owlbert as well but she took a huge breath and spun to help hold the line.</p><p>"This whole family is stubborn as hell." Gus growled when Luz ran up to join them. She stood next to Noceda and exhaled what could have been a chuckle in a lighter situation when her older counterpart responded with, "Don't I fuckin' know it."</p><p>The three abominations quickly went from intimidating quiet steps to flat out running, completely ignoring the barrage of light balls that still had enough lingering instruction to bounce around the opposition's heads. They were scary enough and Luz was thankful that the ghostly pink-purple hands had not only reduced in number, but barely moved. The few that were left were slowly drifting back towards the house on their wispy tethers.</p><p>The sound of metal against, metal-ish, told Luz that Gus was handling (swordling?) one of the clones and Noceda was swinging with her glyph-covered bat at the one that had been gunning for her. Luz didn't know how strong the abominations really were so she took a less direct approach to the third one.</p><p>"Follow meeeee~" She cried and led it on a merry chase through the veritable jungle gym of vines that Willow had left the lawn in. The Mr. Blight-shaped monster wasn't as fast as the real thing, but it didn't seem discouraged by this. It still couldn't keep up with Luz's weaving and ducking through the mess of stiff plants and it slowed down to start hacking away at them with its pseudo-sword.</p><p>Luz was gasping hard and keeping several thick tangles of vines (and some magical additions of her own) between her and the abomination when she heard and saw the light flash from what had to be Noceda's bat finally hitting home. A yelp followed it up and Luz guessed that wasn't enough to stop the older teen's gooey opponent. These things were ridiculous!</p><p>With most of the vines cut down now Luz was being herded towards the house and she noticed the ghostly hands had drifted over to disappear into Mr. Blight. His matching-coloured eye glowed brighter and he started to get to his feet. Luz was quickly finding herself to be stuck between a rock and a sharp place!</p><p>The abomination raised its sword for an attack and Luz glanced behind her at the terrible man with the one glowing eye and the other one blown out with icky protrusions. <em>He</em> didn't have his sword though, one hand was pushing off his own knee for purchase and the other lifted for balance while he tried to stand up! A crazy idea struck her and Luz backed towards him, letting the abomination close in and she suddenly ducked around Mr. Blight when the monster slashed at her!</p><p>Nothing happened. She opened her eyes and peeked up to see the man regain his footing and turn to glare at her over his shoulder. The abomination clone was frozen in mid-slash.</p><p>"Ehehe... sorry.." Luz winced, and now both of them were fixing her with their horrible empty gazes. The big house wasn't far at her back and she was losing places to run to.</p><p>Luz wondered if she could possibly reach for some glyphs and set them off before either one of them lunged at her, but then Mr. Blight's eye suddenly went wide and the pinkish-purple light sputtered out. His mouth fell open and he exhaled something that seemed to be so much more than just his last breath and then crumpled to the ground with a sickening crack as his eye mutation jerked his head back upon impacting with the dirt.</p><p>Blinking rapidly, Luz tore her shocked gaze off of the man to see his clone stumble back a few steps and collapse like a burst water balloon in slow-motion. Its sword dissolved into goo along with it. Yellow light from the living room poured out to mix with her glyph lights as the stretched-flat abomination melted out of the window frame.</p><p><em>"Yes!"</em>  She heard someone shout, it was Amity! She and Blight were both holding onto Owlbert, his eyes were dimming from the blazing white that they had just been and a quick check told her that Noceda's and Gus' clones were likewise lumpy puddles on the ground. Someone inside the big house was shrieking bloody murder.</p><p>"What the hell??" Noceda's incredulous yell rang out over the huge lawn-turned-battlefield. Luz could just barely make out Blight's disbelieving grin from way over here. Amity shouted back, still with a bit of a rasp to her voice made more obvious by the attempted volume.</p><p>"It was Mother! She was controlling him with oracle magic! The three of us cut the connection!"</p><p>Luz's face lit up with the sudden understanding that however it had happened, <em>they had just won.</em> A huge rush of relief, admiration and dare-she-say-it, <em>Love</em>, burst through her chest! Also a sword.</p><p>A sword?</p><p>
  <em>So that's where Mr. Blight's sword went off to...</em>
</p><p>She reached up to curiously touch the gleaming metal protruding from just a few inches under her shirt collar. Luz would have thought there would be more pain, but it was mostly an insistent pressure, almost sore. Emira pulled the sword back out and Luz lowered herself to her knees because her legs felt too wobbly to hold her up. This was probably really bad, but she couldn't remember how to scream so she just let her mouth hang open.</p><p>~*~</p><p>Amity figured that Blight must have seen the danger just before it happened. The older witch jerked so hard in surprise and then tore off towards Luz at speeds that shouldn’t have been possible given her wounded leg.</p><p>Then she saw it for herself as the human girl sank to her knees and Emira limped out from behind her, tossing her father's bloodied sword to the side and accepting Blight's furious tackle. They landed somewhere on the stone porch steps, but Amity wasn't hearing them anymore.</p><p>
  <em>LUZ!</em>
</p><p>She may have screamed it out loud or just in her head. She didn't really feel Owlbert fall from her fingers or her shuffling feet as they carried her across the mangled wreck of a lawn. Noceda and Gus were running and got to her first; By the time Amity wandered up to them Luz was coaxed onto her back and struggling for each painful-sounding breath.</p><p>In the last couple hours since Edric shut her in the nursery, Amity had to watch Luz die.. over and over again. Granted, it was Grometheus pretending to be her and looking back on it had the same foggy quality that all nightmares held. But this time it was real, and no amount of convincing herself would let her believe she was still trapped in that horrible room.</p><p>Luz was looking at her and, bless her, trying to speak. The hundreds of glyph lights illuminating the lawn were winking out, one by one, ten by ten, until only the decorative witch lamps and living room lights were left to see by.</p><p>"Am..it..y," Luz was reaching for her and somehow her little voice reached Amity's ears over the din that everyone else was making. Everything that wasn't Luz's voice was just static. "I-I'm sorry.."</p><p>She wanted to take that offered hand in her own, but she couldn't. She wanted to hide her face behind her shaking fingers, but she couldn't. She wanted to cast a healing spell and make it all better, but she couldn't.</p><p>Amity's trembling hands just hovered; <em>Such useless hands</em>, she thought bitterly.</p><p>Those apologetic hazel eyes were being directed off of her. Noceda was cradling Luz's face and saying something in a terrified rush. Amity tried to listen for some of the words since they might be the last ones the human girl would ever hear.</p><p>"-do you want to live, even if it hurts?-"</p><p>The odd little hat she always wore was clasped in her other hand so very tightly.</p><p>~*~</p><p>"-she's not going to make it to Viney's. If you put her on that staff you're going to use up her last few minutes." Gus was telling her. She hated that the captain of Bonesborough would have seen this before, many times maybe, while defending his city. How many allies did he have to watch die just like this?</p><p>Noceda was doing her best to block out everything else. It was so hard. That god-awful wailing from inside the house wasn't letting up. Blight was making some kind of hoarse set of noises as she continued to pound Emira's stilled body. And Amity... Amity was standing there with horror frozen on her face. Noceda would never, ever forget that look.</p><p>
  <em>You have to do it.</em>
</p><p>She knew. She knew the moment she realized what had happened. The second Luz had crumpled to the ground. The instant Noceda had rushed to her in panic and eased the younger teen to lie back on the ground.</p><p>
  <em>You have to do it <strong>now.</strong></em>
</p><p>Yeah, she did. But it was so... so hard.</p><p>Noceda looked once more over at Blight panting harshly in the yellow light and staring ahead unseeingly. Her fists were covered with blood. Well, she was covered head to toe in blood, but the stuff on her fists was the freshest.</p><p>
  <em>I'm sorry Amity. I'm not choosing her over you... but I just can't watch her die like this.</em>
</p><p>Trembling fingers reached up to pull off her beanie. Inside it lay the source of nearly every late-hour indecision. Every mocking nightmare. Her fear of enduring the next cruel twist. Her hope for more chances to weather what this terrible world threw at her, and maybe someday save it.</p><p>The second Nine-Lives Curse.</p><p>It was heartbreaking to see Luz reaching out for Amity, and the witch too lost in her emotions to respond. Noceda had wasted enough time though and she needed to get the girl's attention. She couldn't do this without her cooperation.</p><p>Noceda leaned in over the younger teen and tilted her face so Luz would have the best chance of focusing on her. She more or less had the words in her head, but making her mouth say them was a battle.</p><p>"Luz, listen to me. I know you're in a lot of pain but we don't have much time. I-..I have another copy of the curse that revives me through fatal sit-sich, fuck, s-situations." It felt like all the moisture in her mouth was redirecting to her eyes or something. Noceda swallowed and blinked rapidly so she could measure the comprehension in Luz's face. "It - it's really hard to deal with but that's your choice to make. Luz, do you want to live, even if it hurts? It's not going to be the same way it was, but you'll still.." She choked, forcing out the last few words. "You'll still be here."</p><p>Those frightened hazel eyes gazed past her for a few agonizingly long seconds while Luz shivered and tried to take small wet breaths. She ever so gently turned her head to look up at Amity, who was staring down at her with wide, terrified eyes and her hands clasped crushingly tight in front of her mouth. The witch looked like she was afraid of shattering them all if she dared to move.</p><p>Luz laboriously fixed her attention on Noceda again, and was that a nod? Yes? No? Maybe??</p><p>A little motion caught her eye. Across her stomach where the younger teen's arm had drifted when Amity couldn't reach back, her hand was forming a loose thumbs-up.</p><p>"Okay.." Noceda sucked in her breaths faster and her pounding heart threatened to punch its way out. "Okay.." She picked out the folded up scroll tucked into the lining of her trusty old beanie and let it flop to the ground like a husk. "Okay.." The worn-looking, cotton paper that she stared at for so many nights, agonizing over the contents, slowly unfurled in her shaky fingers. "Okay.." Inside was the same black writing as always, the exact match to the one she'd activated on herself.</p><p>"Okay." Noceda reached for Luz's hand and fit the scroll into it, pressing and holding the girl's thumb over the inked image of a feline-looking creature. Her skin was soft, and cold.</p><p>"Luz, I need you to say its name." <em>Unholy shit, she was really doing this.</em> "Say the words, 'Nine-Lives' and then 'Curse', and it'll activate."</p><p>It took her a couple attempts, and she had to wait out a particularly rough wave of pain that had the poor teen squirm in place and finally drew Amity to her side. The pale witch gingerly brushed the sweaty bangs out of Luz's eyes and she half-murmured, half-sobbed, "Please Luz. You can do it."</p><p>With a shuddering little breath, her lips parted and she finally managed to whisper it.</p><p>"Nine... Lives... Curse." The tears in her eyes had welled up enough to begin leaking out.</p><p>At first, nothing happened. Noceda felt her blood turning to ice at the thought that perhaps it wouldn't work at all.</p><p>She felt both relief and a terrible sinking feeling when she noticed it then. Under Luz's thumb, still mashed against the scroll under Noceda's own, a pair of tiny black paws reached up. Just like two years ago, a small feline-creature pulled itself off of the paper and left a burning hole where it once resided. The drawing sat on Luz's thumbnail for a few seconds, then jumped over Noceda's hand in a wide arc to land mid-way up Luz's shaking arm, near the elbow. It circled in place a couple times and then sank into her skin.</p><p>Luz groaned, clearly able to feel the curse etching itself into her separately from the frothing stab wound in her chest. Noceda remembered the burning feeling as the magic sewed itself into every fiber of her body, and now she was seeing what it looked like from the outside.</p><p>The girl had been putting up a brave front so far, and she still had courage in her yet. She didn't have the strength to lift her arm and look at it, so instead she peered straight up at Amity. In place of words, Luz smiled a sad, apologetic little smile. Even with her life literally spilling out into the dirt, she wanted to comfort those who cared about her.</p><p>Noceda had to shut her eyes very tightly. She would stay until it happened but it was so hard. She idly ripped at the grass under her hand, not really noticing that Luz's blood had pooled far enough to reach the knees of her torn jeans.</p><p>"Why isn't she getting better?" Amity asked in a trembling voice.</p><p>She had to take a few deep breaths before her throat loosened up enough to speak again. "It doesn't.. work like that. Once she's about to go, it'll bring her back."</p><p>Pale fingers with worn black nail-polish kept gently gliding over Luz's forehead and her eyes closed on the little stream of tears. Small mercies made Amity shut her eyes as well while she murmured, 'You're going to be alright," over and over. Noceda could see her younger counterpart's lips moving weakly and if Amity had made out the words it would have probably broken her further.</p><p>
  <em>'I want to go home.' 'I'm not ready yet.' 'I don't want to go.'</em>
</p><p> </p><p>A handful of minutes ago, they thought they had won this battle. Saved their beloved witches, ready to ride off into the sunset. Or face the consequences of maybe inciting civil war, whichever. This outcome was a definite loss, however...</p><p>A magical solution for a magical world.</p><p>Luz let out what should have been her last breath, but it was followed up with a deep inhale that went well beyond the confines of her little body. Her eyes flew open and every muscle tensed while an unearthly breeze passed over her. The mark on her arm pulsed, sending waves of dark energy along her skin and much deeper.</p><p>Noceda glanced at Amity but the young witch was hyper-focused on Luz. She held the girl's hand in a deathgrip, ironically enough, and her breaths came fast. She looked hopeful. Terrified, but hopeful.</p><p>"It's working!" She gasped, looking up at Noceda for a half-second. A shuddering hand landed lightly on her shoulder and Noceda knew Blight was offering what support she was able. She covered it with her own.</p><p>The fountain of magic pouring from her arm cut off with a final dramatic pulse, and Luz lost much of her rigidity. Her eyes were wide and shaky, and her mouth hung open in a soundless scream.</p><p>Bright frothing blood burbled up from the puncture in her chest anew, and the pain in her face was so intense as to take away what little breath she had left.</p><p>"No! NO! What's happening, why didn't it work!" Amity was almost unintelligible between the rasp in her voice and the panicked sob, but Noceda was hearing the same shrieking in her own head. Luz began thrashing, drawing her limbs towards herself and vocalizing in agony. It was like time had just rewound by a few minutes, and this time her body wasn't even in shock anymore.</p><p>Noceda stared into the void with dawning horror.</p><p><em>Oh living fuck. </em>The magic wasn’t healing her, it was returning her to the exact point she was cursed.</p><p>
  <em>That's why you get temporarily younger when you die, you fucking idiot. That's why Willow called it a 'local time-manipulation' spell! </em>
</p><p>"<strong>SHIT!</strong> Where's Eda's staff?! OWLBERT COME TO ME!" She yelled hoarsely, fumbling when the palisman nearly rammed into her in his frenzy to fly over. If anyone was trying to speak to her she couldn't hear them over the blood rushing in her ears and Luz's breathless crying.</p><p>"Do any of you know a sleep spell? Or an a aneth-asnethi- F-FUCKING NO-PAIN SPELL?"</p><p>Losing her composure was having a domino-effect on the others while she scooped up the jerking younger teen and mounted Owlbert as quickly as she dared. Since no one jumped in with something to help soothe the poor girl's agony Noceda assumed none of them did.</p><p>"You're going to Viney's?" Gus asked in a rush, and Noceda shot him a frantic look.</p><p>"No choice. We just bought time in the worst possible way." She said, shaking badly enough to even make Owlbert vibrate. "Meet me there?"</p><p>Noceda was already about ten feet in the air when he nodded nervously up at her, and trying to keep hold of Luz was awful when every little shift or movement seemed to add to her misery. When they hit the treeline that surrounded the huge property she glanced back to see Blight tearing after her as fast as her ripped-up leg would allow and Gus leaning over Amity who may have been curled up in her knees on the ground, it was hard to tell.</p><p>With a hasty prayer that the three witches would be alright, she focused on directing Owlbert as fast and steady as she could and hoped that they could reach Viney before Luz had to die too many more times.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>*author is gross sobbing under her desk* </p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Lucid</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey guys! This is technically 'scene 2 of chapter 19' but I hate to have accidentally paused the story where it is and this sorta works as a stand-alone until the rest is done, so.. hope it'll suffice until the actual last chappie of Act 1 is ready. </p><p>Thanks for all the wonderful thoughts and emotions from last chap, you guys are the best~!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Despite Bonesborough being a fairly large city, the brightest part of it by far was the Market. Locating Viney's clinic from a hundred feet in the air wasn't very difficult with the distinctive animal paddocks running behind it and the small but ever-present crowd of people out front.</p><p>"MOVE! Get out of the way!" Noceda yelled as she touched down with a gust of arcane wind blowing around them courtesy of Owlbert.</p><p>It could have been the desperation in her voice, or perhaps the appearance of a valuable witch's staff in full use that caused the witches and demons milling around to give them distance. More than likely though, it was the fact that she and Luz looked like they had hopped into a bathtub full of blood and stayed a while.</p><p>"Let us in, we have to see Viney right now! This is an emergency!"</p><p>"Yes I can see that, but I have protocol to follow-" The flustered witch at the front counter stuttered, eyes wide at the sight of them. Just walking through the front doors and crossing the lobby was making a terrible mess.</p><p>"Fuck your protocol! She's only got a couple minutes left at best!" Noceda shrieked at the poor bright-orange lady. It was becoming impossibly hard to keep her grip on Luz for so many different reasons.</p><p>"Miss, a priority alarm will have already been triggered. You need to understand that we deal with emergencies all day long and-"</p><p>"I DON'T CARE! GET SOMEONE TO HEAL HER RIGHT NOW!"</p><p>Her bellowing wasn't making her feel any better, and possibly even Luz was aware of it as she uttered a fresh set of sobs. Noceda was so exhausted and strained that she couldn't really carry Luz's full weight anymore and needed Owlbert to help keep them both up.</p><p>"Who the hell is- Noceda?!"</p><p>Amelia pushed open the little half-door between the lobby and wherever that hall went hard enough to make it hit the wall. Next to Viney she was the most familiar person here to Noceda.</p><p>"She's, she's-"</p><p>"Yup." The lime-haired witch signalled one of the orderlies standing around like a cheerless sentinel to take Luz and she directed her next words at the clerk-witch, "I'll take this call, but buzz Viney anyway. She's going to want to oversee this."</p><p>It was mostly a rush of muted colours and over-loud sounds for the moment it took Noceda to stumble after them down a hallway and into an emergency room. From behind the wide-set orderly carrying Luz, all she could see was the soaked tips of her little shoes.</p><p>"On the table. Strap her down, she's speeding up the blood loss." Amelia commanded, and both she and her huge helper worked quickly to secure the blood-sodden teen to the Isle-equivalent of an operating table.</p><p>"What can I do?" Noceda wheezed, recognizing the weakening in Luz's movements that preceded her about to...</p><p>"See that chair?" The witch pointed behind her and Noceda spun to grab it on instinct, "Sit in it. You're going to fall down and need a table yourself."</p><p>Ever the obedient person that she was, Noceda approached the table opposite from Amelia and kept herself up by holding onto Eda's staff. The plant-track-witch-turned-healer was already hovering a spellcircle over Luz before the orderly could unlock the cabinet holding artifacts for draining.</p><p>"Uh, wow, humans are so different.. I don't-" She murmured, sounding rather nervous all of a sudden. Luz was becoming still and Noceda knew she only had a breath or two left.</p><p>"Cast a healing spell now!" She yelled desperately, and barely felt as she was being pushed back since she couldn't take her focus off of Luz's face. Amelia nearly yelped with the outburst and her entire hand and then Luz's upper body took on a spectacular golden-white light.</p><p>The blinding after-images fogged up Noceda's vision but she listened as she tried to crush them out with her palms.</p><p>"The wound is mostly closed..." She heard the words, followed by some more that made her stomach drop, "Oh no... dammit."</p><p>Noceda blinked blearily at Amelia over the broad arm of the demon keeping her back. The lime-haired witch looked completely dismayed. Luz looked perfectly still.</p><p>"I'm so sorry, there wasn't enough time-MUH?"  She jerked back as the supposedly-expired teen on the table woke up with a spastic thrashing and dark energy radiating out of her arm. Blood and pained crying anew, the curse brought her back again. Noceda wasn't sure how many times that was now.</p><p>"What in Titan's asshole just happened?" The stunned witch just stared. She knew the feel of death better than most, and she was <em>sure </em>the girl on her table had been lost.</p><p>"Help her, please.." Noceda grit out weakly, and finally accepted a careful push into the chair she'd been told to take. The large demon orderly looked ready to catch her if she sprang out of it, but he needn't have bothered. Noceda had no strength left to stand. "I don't know how many she has left.."</p><p>The swinging door to the room opened and Viney barrelled in. "Call said my favourite human got hurt?" She took in the room's occupants in a rush and Noceda thought she heard her mumble something like, "Oh right, there's two of you now.." and then in a more commanding voice, "Amelia get to room twenty-four, we've got a Caffalog with a split rhinebone. Armsfield you go with her." The large demon hopped to attention at the sound of his name and Amelia looked both guilty and relieved to be sent flying out of the room.</p><p>Seeing her old friend gave Noceda a burst of strength enough to hobble over to the table. Luz must have had a clear few seconds to realize Noceda was close and her right arm, strapped down above the elbow, reached out for her.</p><p>Viney wasted no time magically analysing her and Noceda leaned Owlbert against the table so she could clasp both of her sticky red hands around Luz's. The poor girl was so beyond words but, bless her, she was trying.</p><p>"Titan's asshole, I forgot how fiddly your human body is." Viney spluttered and she stalked over to the artifact cabinet which opened on its own for her and she picked out a pair of odd items that may have been fascinating at another time and place.</p><p>Noceda peered down at Luz and dared to move in closer, trying to lock a reassuring gaze on her bloodshot eyes while she writhed and appeared to be making a huge effort to be quiet.</p><p>"You're going to be okay, Luz. Viney's going to fix you right up. Just hold on a bit longer, alright? It's almost over." The words came out exhausted, and felt so inadequate, but there was the tiniest flicker of something on the younger teen's face that may have meant Noceda's words were reassuring her.</p><p>Viney didn't say anything while she worked, efficiently extracting the magical potency out of the first of her two relics (it was a bell of some kind). She looked to be formulating a strategy and Noceda didn't dare so much as move now, not wanting to break her concentration. Everything would be decided here. If the previous Troublemaker witch couldn't do it, nobody could. There wasn't any time left.</p><p>A white glow coiled up from the witch's spellcircle and she pushed it into Luz. It didn't look like a healing spell, and indeed a quick check told Noceda that the wound was as horrid as ever. Though Luz's frail grip on her hands gained some firmness and the relief on her face was immense.</p><p>While Viney extracted more magic from her artifact in preparation for another spell, Luz's searching eyes found Noceda's and there was more coherency in them now. She dared to hope, and she <em>would</em> dare to hope, that the girl was going to be alright.</p><p>Noceda reached out to tilt Luz's chin up when perhaps morbid curiosity compelled her to try and look at the rest of herself. "Don't, Luz. Just look up here at me." She swished the locks of hair which hung down in front of her ears back and forth, and that seemed to captivate Luz's attention for a few more seconds.</p><p>She felt the pulse of the second spell more than she saw it. It didn't give off much light.</p><p>"What did you cast on her?" Noceda asked without taking her eyes off of Luz's face. She didn't look like she was in pain anymore, but she wasn't entirely lucid either while she watched Noceda's lips form the question.</p><p>"First one was a pain-blocker spell. Second was a stabilizer." Viney answered automatically. She drained the rest of the energy from her bell-like artifact and tossed it carelessly over her shoulder out of the way. "Going right into an advanced healing spell might not work out so hot. Too much shock to the system."</p><p>A third spellcircle took its place around Viney's left wrist, and this time it was glowing the familiar brilliant white-gold that Noceda knew so well.</p><p>"You wanna, observe this one..?" The witch asked her cautiously and Noceda shot a glare back. "Okay okay, sorry. They're all emergencies to me, so you get kinda overly practical I guess."</p><p>Whatever sheepishness that came with her retort evaporated when the glow of her hand made it impossible to see her face anymore. Noceda hastily tried to shield Luz's eyes without rubbing too much blood on her skin and shut her own eyes tightly as Viney cast the powerful healing spell.</p><p>Even while the starbursts that her eyelids failed to completely block out made it hard to focus, she leaned in close to try and gauge Luz's condition. The younger teen was drowsily closing one eye at a time. Noceda couldn't see her wound under the disgusting mess of her shirt so she hoped her half-blinded gaze at Viney would convey the question instead.</p><p>"She'll need another one, but I'm gonna give her about twenty or thirty minutes to get used to how much magic she's got running through her." The witch was clenching and unclenching her hands, then looked at the other artifact on the table as if to confirm it was still there. "After that you can mop up the rest with glyphs. Looks like you need a couple yourself."</p><p>"I'm fine. So she's.. okay now?" Noceda asked with a touch more attitude than she really intended. Her nerves were fried and now that Luz seemed to be out of the fire all of her exhaustion was catching up at once.</p><p>"So long as she gets another big heal before the blocker and stabilizer wear off in a few hours, she'll be right as boiling rain." Viney said as she began gathering things from various cupboards and baskets, including a pale green sheet of fabric that was likely used as a hospital gown.</p><p>"In the meantime, sit your butt down and tell me what happened. I heard some weird stuff about you and Gus storming the city?"</p><p>With Luz quickly slipping into a much-needed sleep, Noceda finally collapsed into her chair and stayed there while relaying the events of the last day and a half or something like that. Viney listened intently while she sailed through mundane tasks that had to be below her usual pay grade, but Noceda was just so thankful since she doubted she'd be able to clean and change her younger counterpart with even a fraction of the efficiency that the witch operated at.</p><p>"So where're Blight and Gus now?" Viney asked and handed her a fresh bowl of water and a cloth. Noceda was wearily wiping herself off and she'd already swapped out her ruined pants for a gown (which she wore like a makeshift skirt). Her jacket had taken the brunt of the bleeding Luz had done the whole time they were racing here, so her shirt was only a little awful and she didn't want to take it off anyways.</p><p>"They should be on their way here. Honestly, I'm at my wit's end. I'd probably be freaking out if I wasn't so damn tir-ooooh, that's nice.." She paused her self-care to appreciate the soothing wave that came with a healing glyph from the witch, followed up quickly by a second one. It took away much of the bruising and strained muscles and even made her feel a bit less exhausted. She wished Viney could use a third one but she knew from experience that it wouldn't help.</p><p>"I'll let the front know to keep an eye out for them and send 'em back here when they show up. Anyone gonna need a patch-up, like more than the slow-but-steady?" Viney asked and indicated the other artifact next to Luz on the table. The gesture reminded Noceda that the two of them weren't the only ones that had been dyed red tonight, and she got up just long enough to grab Eda's staff and start wiping it down as well.</p><p>"Blight's leg got torn up, and all three of them are probably beat to hell in some way or another. Not sure what meets your criteria for a big heal." She took a fluttery breath and looked up at Viney who was leaning against Luz's table now, idle for the moment. "We've got power glyphs and artifacts from Eda's, so I'll happily provide those if it helps. All our stuff is back at the house though. I'll figure that out when I can think straight."</p><p>"Won't say no to those. I'll get you set up with some rooms and you guys can ride out the night here. You look like you need about a week's worth of sleep." The witch said with a little quirk of her lips. Her odd little tics and twitches were more apparent with her brief inaction and she seemed eager to relieve Noceda of her used cloth and refill her bowl with clean water if only to stay on the move.</p><p>After Viney came back with a fresh bowl and small towel, Noceda stopped her retreat with a hand to the witch's arm. She looked like she knew what Noceda was going to say, but didn't interrupt and wave her off.</p><p>"Viney, I really can't thank you enough. I don't know what I'd do if.. if she..." The last few words were just too much to say out loud. The healer witch just nodded understandingly.</p><p>"Glad I could help." She replied with an easy smile. She looked like she wanted to add something, but decided against it for the moment. With a gentle pat to her hand Noceda relinquished her hold and molded to the chair, cleaning temporarily forgotten about.</p><p>So many thoughts and emotions were colliding in Noceda's head that it was hard to fully make any of them out. The gnawing distress of Blight and the others still out in the night was gaining more ground, though she knew it would be foolish to go running around looking now.</p><p>The witch was quiet as she puttered around the room, putting things back in their place and such. She disappeared for a few moments to inform the front desk of Blight, Gus and Amity's expected arrival and where to direct them. When she came back, Viney pulled two side-bars up from the examination table and undid the straps holding Luz down so she could shift if she needed to without risk of falling over the side.</p><p>"Willow..." Noceda murmured suddenly, picking up her train of thought out of the chaos between her ears. Viney paused what she was doing to look at her questioningly. "Willow is going to need healing. She used a lot of magic to help us while we were getting Blight and Amity back."</p><p>"Surprise, surprise. Willow over-did it with her magic." Viney said with a sort-of good-humoured huff. "I'll head out to her place after I've done the second spell on your... hmm..." Trailing off like she did, it occurred to Noceda that the topic of Luz and Amity's origins hadn't come up yet around the healer. She didn't really have the energy to go into it now but talking was helping keep her mind off of each minute that lumbered on by without a certain trio showing up safely.</p><p>"She's me from another dimension. Amity t-, little Amity too." Noceda offered simply and hoped Viney wouldn't ask her for details.</p><p>"Hmm. Thought something felt odd when I was near her the day you guys came in. Answers that question I suppose."</p><p>Noceda allowed for a small breath, the merest hint of a laugh. Viney was relentlessly curious about anything related to her crafts but when it came to nearly all else she was completely unfazed, perhaps even disinterested.</p><p>A small blue band around Viney's wrist suddenly began to glow and pulse, catching both of their attentions right away.</p><p>"That's probably you guys." Viney said with a smart tap on the band to quiet it. Hope and adrenaline surged anew in Noceda and she stabbed Eda's staff against the floor to heave herself up out of the chair and hobble out the door into the clinic's main hall. Seeing her green-haired witch in the front lobby scanning the place with sharp eyes made Noceda want to sink to the floor in relief.</p><p>Hazel met gold and Blight took a few automatic steps towards her, then that pale, scratched up, bruised and <em>beautiful</em> face took on several flavours of hurt and frustrated although it didn't stop her approach. Noceda thought her exhausted legs might just up and mutiny but she pushed herself to meet the witch halfway and for a moment they just watched each other, waiting for the other to give some sort of sign.</p><p>Noceda dared to move first, reaching out with her hand not grasping Eda's staff for support. Shaky fingers cautiously sunk into those wild green locks and Blight's irritated demeanor began to crumble at the edges and reveal hints of the maelstrom of emotions inside.</p><p>"I'm sorry for going off ahead of you." Noceda murmured softly enough to be almost a whisper. Golden orbs watched her lips while she let out the feeble little words and then they met her eyes. Hot tears pushed out to mix with the blood, sweat and dirt on Blight's weary face and Noceda guided her head forward until the witch relented to let herself hide them in the crook of her neck. Noceda may not yet know the full repercussions of their separation, but she was just so thankful right now to feel those shuddering little breaths against her skin.</p><p>Someone in the lobby 'aww!'-ed obtrusively and Blight flinched, then pulled back. Noceda already missed the contact and reluctantly let her hand slip out of the witch's hair. The sting of seeing Blight retreat into herself was just somewhat countered by the slow approach of Gus' tall figure behind her. Holding his hand and looking thoroughly down-trodden and unaware of her surroundings, was Amity.</p><p>Ever the professional, Viney ushered the lot of them into an empty examination room a door down from the one Luz was resting in.</p><p>"Right then, let's see the damage. Let's do Blight first since you're leaving a concerning amount of blood puddled around wherever you stand for too long."</p><p>The healing witch checked with Gus with a glance, taking in his cut-up appearance and torn clothing while he stiffly situated himself into a chair. He nodded at Viney to confirm his lack of emergency and eased Amity to sit in the other chair as well. His shirt and light body armour fell away partly on his side, revealing unusual tough-looking ridges that covered the skin over his ribs. Likely his rarely-seen corruptions, Noceda figured.</p><p>Blight wrapped her hands around her elbows and kept her gaze in the vague direction of 'down' while Viney magically examined her. The quirky healing witch's familiarity with handling patients in a variety of physical and mental states was much more apparent now than it had been the first time Noceda had brought the two together. She kept a calm and unintimidating air about her as she coaxed Blight to sit on the table and remain relatively docile through the motions and proximity required.</p><p>The urge to smother the green-haired witch in reassurance and affection was almost painful to Noceda, but she kept a respectful distance and watched from her place nearby. She wasn't really aware of how white her knuckles were on the staff holding her up, nor that Owlbert was actively keeping it upright instead of her.</p><p>Furrowed brows on Viney's face combined with her rather longer-than-expected scrutiny prompted Noceda to gingerly suggest Blight's leg be attended to. This seemed to snap the healer witch out of her train of thought and she nodded sharply before making her way to the room's artifact-holding cabinet. Like the previous one in Luz's room, it unlocked and opened by itself for her.</p><p>Blight took deep breaths and kept her eyes shut tightly while Viney began casting her healing spell over the sliced flesh, courtesy of Alador's sword.</p><p>"I've seen an awful lot of strange stuff these past couple years, but this is something I've never come across before." Viney said distractedly, seeming to continue inspecting Blight even while her magic was closing up the horrible wound.</p><p>"You mean the cut on her leg?" Noceda asked, leaning her head against Owlbert's side. Gus pulled himself out of his chair and persuaded her to take it instead. She didn't have the capacity to argue.</p><p>"Not that, no." Viney answered with a little snort. She continued to hover around Blight long enough that the green-haired witch began to tense up. "There's a.. I don't know, a build-up of some sort around her bile sac. It almost feels like corruption, but I haven't seen it do this before. It's perfectly molding the inside like a skin. How fascinating..."</p><p>Proving that she did in fact have survival instincts, the healer witch grudgingly backed off before Blight's warning glare could turn violent. She cleared her throat and placed the mostly-drained little relic she had used on a counter near the sink.</p><p>"Physically, Blight, you're fine. Relatively speaking. You've done a fair amount of casting since I saw you last and it's already starting to take its toll. Normally I'd have you keep up an extra aggressive glyph regimen, not that it would be much different than what you've been doing for her, " Viney directed the later bit at Noceda, who was mostly paying attention. "Though something's telling me you're going to be in for a rough result from how much magic you've been using. Let's get some sleep in you and do another good heal in the morning. I need to do some research." She muttered distractedly.</p><p>"I've got research stuff. For you. Eda's stuff." Noceda murmured, drifting in and out on her chair. With extraordinary effort she turned her head to take in Amity's appearance. The young witch was watching her knees intently.</p><p>"Hey you guys, I'm gonna take off." Gus said as he began inching backwards towards the door. "I've got an alibi to reinforce, and possibly an idea that may be helpful."</p><p>Viney beat Noceda to it before she could let some rambling cross between a thank-you and an apology spill out. "Cap, you want a big heal before you go?"</p><p>Gus spun up an illusion for himself that gave the appearance of what he'd looked like just hours prior in his smart outfit and sturdy light-body armour. The cuts, bruising, burns and other souvenirs from taking on both Alador and Emira were covered up, but it didn't quite mask the fatigue and worry in his eyes.</p><p>"Maybe when the magic-use starts catching up. I'll get my buddy Brax to glyph me in the meantime." He said with a half-convincing little grin. Viney picked two healing glyphs out of her sweeping white coat (which was rather bizarre to watch, since Noceda was so used to just seeing herself and Luz have them on hand) and Gus breathed a little sigh of relief when she activated them on him right there.</p><p>"Gus." His kind dark eyes fell to Noceda and he smiled, already knowing what she wanted to say. "Thank you.."</p><p>She wanted so desperately to have the energy to envelope him in a crushing embrace and the words to properly convey how grateful she was for his help. Noceda was dead certain now that their rescue attempt would have gone a lot worse without him, if it had worked at all.</p><p>The tall witch never needed a lot of words at times like these. With a cheeky little salute, he exited the room presumably to make his way back to the Bonesguard headquarters and reintegrate himself without raising too much suspicion as to where he had been. Hopefully his illusion stand-in had been able to hold out and maybe with any luck made it look like he'd turned in for the night.</p><p>"Well let's get little Blight looked after and then one more heal for little Noceda and all of you go get some sleep. Someone will show you to the overnight rooms and where the showers are and such."</p><p><em>God</em>, Noceda thought loudly to herself, that sounded like a great plan.</p><p> </p><p>                 Amity was more or less aware of the odd healer witch near her and speaking, but she didn't really come around until she could feel soothing magic begin to alight on her skin like a fresh morning mist. She slowly drew her eyes up to see that the older witch had come to her in her chair and was applying a second glyph. She was distantly thankful that nobody had decided to spring one of the more powerful healing spells on her. They looked really jarring and she felt ready to shake apart as it was.</p><p>"Amity?" The healer witch gently spoke her name and she met her caring pale green eyes. "I've used two healing glyphs on you just now to address a lot of the minor injuries you've sustained in the last day or so."</p><p>She wasn't really sure what to say to that, but an answer didn't seem to be expected while the other witch just watched her face carefully.</p><p>"You're going to want to start using a healing glyph a couple times daily for the next little while. You may not feel it right now, but the results of your magic use in the last several days is accumulating. There's no need to worry though, you'll be on top of your progression much more quickly than anyone else I know. It took us weeks at first to even realize something was going wrong inside."</p><p>She supposed that was meant to be reassuring. Amity obediently held out her hand to accept a tiny bundle of thin green leaves tied together with a piece of itself. She recognized the plant at cetgrass, and listened distantly as the healer witch advised her to chew it a few times and then spit it out to help her with sleeping. She had been allowed some of the herb while taking the long, healing magic-less route for her hurt leg after she'd been injured in that Grudgby match that seemed so long ago. Her parents wanted her to 'fully appreciate her actions and learn from the experience.'</p><p>"I'm gonna just pop over and cast that second spell on little Noceda, then someone will help you guys to your rooms."</p><p>Amity looked up again while the older witch made to leave and she wanted to stop her and ask to come along. She wanted to see Luz. She wanted to see Luz <em>so badly.</em> The image of the human lying there on the trampled grass in the dark was seared into her mind's eye and she wouldn't be able to calm down properly until she saw the girl in a better state.</p><p>"Want to come along?" Noceda asked her. The older teen looked like she was barely able to remain standing but her inviting gaze told Amity that she wasn't ready to rest quite yet. She pushed herself out of the chair, somewhat noticing the much-diminished pain under her tiredness, and wordlessly thanked Noceda with her eyes.</p><p>Blight, holding a little bundle of cetgrass as well, started to shift off of the table and Noceda lifted a hand and urged her to stay. "We'll be right next door, just for a moment," she said, but the older witch stubbornly took to her feet anyways and stood ready to go with them. The healer witch looked carefully neutral at her sudden entourage but she didn't complain.</p><p>The four of them left the brightly-lit room, crossed the brightly-lit hall, and entered into another brightly-lit room. Though this one had Luz in it.</p><p>The positions and words of the others dimmed into the background while Amity took in the girl on her examination table. Luz was asleep and lying on her back, one arm partly sticking off of the edge through a little barrier meant to keep her from rolling off. She was wearing a hospital gown and her other arm was curled protectively over her chest where the... the <em>wound</em> had been. There was no fountain of red staining the pale green cloth, which should have been the obvious result, but somehow Amity still expected to see it.</p><p>Noceda came over to stand near Luz's head while the healer witch picked up an old locket off of the table and began draining it of magic. Amity slowly approached until she could ever so lightly place her fingers on the polished wooden bar penning the girl in from this side.</p><p>Luz took a slow breath when Noceda leaned in and murmured, "You're going to be alright, kid." She covered Luz's eyes with her hand and looked away, and Amity belatedly did the same just before the healer witch cast her spell with all the powerful associated brightness that came with it.</p><p>"Eda..?" Luz asked groggily. She was trying to open her eyes now and the older of the two humans leaned in again and gently shushed her. "It's alright Luz. Go back to sleep. Everything's fine." Amity found some solace in those words as well, though she wasn't entirely sure if she had wanted Luz to stay awake or not. It was a confusing mix of both disappointment and relief when those fluttering eyelids stilled and she curled up on her side, facing Amity and sinking back into unconsciousness.</p><p>"I'm off to see Willow now. I'll check in with you guys come sun up. Someone will be here in a moment for you, okay? Get some sleep."</p><p>"Viney, wait." Noceda called quietly over the table Luz lay on and the healer witch, Viney, stopped to look back at her. The older human looked mildly uncomfortable with what she wanted to ask.</p><p>"Are you sure it's okay to let us stay the night? We're probably going to be in some deep trouble once those clowns in charge realize we aren't where they left us and Blight's old house is a wreck. I'm not entirely sure which parts of her family are even still alive."</p><p>It was with perhaps an overly thoughtless wave that Viney assured them that she wasn't worried about the Home Groaners Association. Amity wasn't sure why Noceda was concerned about the council, though it would make sense that there would be some unrest from the obvious attack on the Blight property. She was too numb and exhausted to want to give it much thought in any case, and Viney's confidence seemed to be enough to reassure Noceda for the time being.</p><p>Amity watched the healer witch leave out of the corner of her eye. As she passed Blight on her way out she gave her a curious glance, and judging from how stoic the older green-haired witch got while she did it was wise that the interaction was left at that.</p><p>They didn't have to wait long before a sturdy-looking demon poked her head in the room and confirmed their names. She gathered up Luz carefully and led them down the halls until the sounds of the clinic began to muffle and dim. Amity felt self-conscious and trailed behind the small group. The sound of Blight's shoes squelching and leaving little partial red and brown prints with each step made her realize that Noceda was barefoot and wearing one of the clinic gowns around her waist like a sort of odd dress. She wrapped her arms around herself and fingered the material of the too-large shirt she was wearing. She felt dirty and smelly and completely out of sorts.</p><p>The demon brought them to a hall that looked distinctively different from the front part of the clinic. It was a sort of blend of the bright bustle and pale walls they had just been in and the more woodsy, homey look of the animal paddocks that ran behind the building. It wasn't so bright back here and there was still a couple clinic staff and probably-patients milling around.</p><p>"I'll git this one settled." The demon said with a husky rasp and regarded the unconscious girl in her arms. The hands of her second, thinner pair of arms pointed along with her instructions to the rest of them. "These're yur rooms, here." She pointed to three doors aside from the one she was standing by with Luz still curled up against her. Blight glanced at Noceda subtly and inched a bit closer to her. She wouldn't meet anyone's eyes. Amity was sure that she intended to stay near the human and although she felt the urge to do the same for Luz, the need to be by herself and shut everything out was much greater.</p><p>The demon pointed out where the bathrooms and showers were, where to get something to eat, and told them that, 'now she'd gotten a look at 'em all she'd bring 'em clean clothes and to leave out anythin' they wanted washt up, ye poor dears.' She finished up by letting them know to ask any staff in the vicinity if they needed something and then took Luz into the room assigned to her.</p><p>Amity slowly paced the little haven lent to her with the door open and lights off, letting the soft glow of the hall illuminate it instead. Someone briefly stopped by with a folded set of clothes (plain and mismatched, but clean), a pair of slippers, a towel, and a facecloth.</p><p>She took the pile and nerved herself up to shuffle off down the hall to the bathrooms. She avoided looking at anyone and kept a strict distance from others, tensing up and stilling when someone would pass her. She wanted to just go back to her room, but she knew it would feel much better to clean up first. More normal.</p><p>This was the second time she had showered today. If the first time even counted at all. She couldn't remember what the temperature of the water at.. that place, was when she stood under the spray. The things she had seen and felt in the nursery were too fresh. She had barely been aware of what she was doing at all.</p><p>Here though, the warm water soothed her muscles. It didn't seem to run much hotter but she didn't mind. She kept her eyes closed and enjoyed the feeling of the spray against her scalp. In this little cubicle, she felt safe. It was her space for as long as she was using it.</p><p>When she didn't want to stay any longer she dried off and got dressed in the clothes she had been given. They fit more-or-less, likely gathered in bulk or donated for use at the clinic. She hoped that they could retrieve their belongings from the safehouse. She tried not to cry when she realized that her witch's bag was probably not there though, since she had it with her in the market when she...</p><p>She dried her face off a second time and left the cubicle with her damp towels and Blight's old clothes she had been wearing folded nicely in her arms. Unlike everyone else, she hadn't been covered in blood. She would leave them out for the nice demon lady to wash though since Blight may want them back.</p><p>Like the lady had said, she was able to find the little cold box with tiny wrapped sandwiches in it and she took one, feeling oddly like a thief even though she had been offered the food. She almost made it back to her room, but she found herself stopped in front of the closed door that hid Luz on the other side of it.</p><p>Probably appearing much bolder than she felt, Amity shifted her load to one arm and opened the door to look inside. Luz was facing away from her and the lit lamp on the nightstand close by. She was probably asleep. Her light green gown had been replaced with her own set of mismatched clothes.</p><p>Amity peered around her like she might be chastised for being there, then she stepped into the room and approached the bed. Luz's breathing sounded the same as it did each night they had been in this world, confirming she was asleep. And alive.</p><p>Owlbert blinked from his spot on the corner of the bed. It only startled her a little bit. She was glad that the small palisman was in here though, keeping the girl company while she slept. The staff was leaning against the wall nearby, and on the nightstand next to the lamp was a tray with much of what Luz had been carrying in her pockets. They appeared to be mostly glyph papers and what looked like a variety of pebbles, or seeds actually, now that she was closer.</p><p>Amity added one of the papers that she recognized as a light glyph to her pile (being sure to pick one that wasn't stained red) and then whispered a 'good night' to the slumbering human. She turned off the lamp and made her way to the door. She paused and looked back, hand on the knob, and Luz turned over onto her other side in her sleep.</p><p>Amity closed the door as quietly as she could manage and slipped into her own room. She left her old clothing outside in the provided basket, ate her tiny sandwich, chewed her cetgrass and fell asleep to the soft white glow of Luz's glyph.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Gathering What Remains</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry for the odd pause guys, enjoy! End of Act 1 and story is 4 months old wheee~</p>
<p>Love to hear thoughts! :D &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>They had always found the sound of waves reaching for land, though never managing to stay, a relaxing thing.</p>
<p>It was an odd contrast to the scene this section of beach had become.</p>
<p>Broken and laying in so many pieces were the remains of what was once a house, a treasured dwelling. The demon whose body was intricately woven into the structure lay still, likely dead. It had leapt off a cliff to escape its mad hoard of pursuers. Their shattered bodies littered the ground as well.</p>
<p>The cloaked figure felt no pity for the fool creatures. In fact, they were mildly annoyed.</p>
<p>Following the trail had led them to the site of a battle. The human had taken part in it. Dutifully, the figure followed the path of destruction to its apparent conclusion; a quaint, sandy beach.</p>
<p>The human was not there. They had wasted precious time.</p>
<p>Pulling out their journal, the figure prepared to send word of the unfortunate delay. But what's this? Word has instead been received?</p>
<p>Brief instruction appeared for them on the page, absolute in authority and immediately procuring a pace from the figure that should rightly exhaust any person into an early grave.</p>
<p>" <em>Make  haste  to  Bonesborough. "</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>As the Emperor commands.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Councillor Nikoleye had awoken in a foul mood.</p>
<p>Some ill-timed kerfuffle outside of his relatively comfortable home had awoken him far too early. A witch or demon was having a meltdown out in the street and had to be escorted to Central Hospital. Now he was incapable of getting the shrieking out of his head and back to sleep.</p>
<p>
  <em>Well, a witch has got to do what a witch has got to do.</em>
</p>
<p>His saying to live by, and reluctantly he extradited himself of his comfortable bed to dress and break his fast.</p>
<p>Right off the cuff, the day appeared doomed to be poor in quality.</p>
<p>He had a mountain of paperwork and tasks to see to. All of it put on hold due to those humans running around and causing unrest in the city with Willow Park and Co-Captain Gus.</p>
<p>Honestly, if he had known that sending word to Odalia and Alador Blight of their misplaced children would cause such a fuss, he wouldn't have done it at all. There had better be a generous gift of gratitude allotted him for the trouble.</p>
<p>A servant witch brought his morning meal and he tackled it at his desk, as was the usual order of business these days. Running the whole city with the rest of the council was a much larger job than his old life managing the estates of just Centreville. It was far more work but quite a satisfying position of power to hold, especially for a witch of his...hmm, comparatively humble origins.</p>
<p><em>Let's see...</em> Central Hospital requires additional staff, bedding supplies, non-perishable foodstuffs and of course, <em>more</em> artifacts to drain magic from. They always seemed to run low, but each request came with more and more urgency.</p>
<p>Another group of caravans with salvage from Collagentown was severely late. No doubt delayed by those hideous boar demons, if not destroyed outright and the handlers killed.</p>
<p>
  <em>Titanspawn, that was the third set this month! If they aren't pounding at our doors and thrashing our soldiers then they're bleeding us dry of resources we haven't even received yet.</em>
</p>
<p>His third eye narrowed suspiciously at the stack of work orders near the far-right corner of his desk. Did it get larger since he had been in here last evening? If many more buildings in Centerville lose their arcane connections to basic utilities then they might have to move operations out of Top Pick for Titan's sake...</p>
<p>Sinking low into his chair was childish, but no one was around to see at the moment. At least, until his messenger demon tapped discreetly against the window that was showcasing an objectively pleasant sunrise.</p>
<p>With a wave he let the diminutive creature in and it left him a scroll tied with a white ribbon. Immediately his attention was focused and posture alert. There was only one person who sent his messages in such a fashion.</p>
<p>The ribbon dissolved when he touched it, and upon opening the scroll he read the words scribed by the Emperor himself.</p>
<p>Now, Councillor Nikoleye had been made aware that the most powerful witch on the Isle was seeking a human some time ago. He knew not what for, and frankly didn't care. He had merely made sure that a message informing the Emperor of the arrival of humans was sent so as to confirm if he was still searching for some. He had hoped that his attention would be rewarded if the dull creatures were yet required for whatever it was the Emperor needed them for.</p>
<p>Judging by the seven words inside, delicately written and somehow instilled with such power and authority regardless of the fragile state of their civilization, the humans were <em>indeed </em>still being sought after. Reading that which was written by the Emperor, no, receiving a request that directly required his assistance..!</p>
<p>" <em>Detain  her.  She  will  be retrieved  promptly. "</em></p>
<p>Perhaps this day wouldn't be so bad after all, he decided with a smile.</p>
<p>The Emperor seeks humans. Nikoleye has humans buttoned up in North Residential. Perhaps the unexpected rewards from the troublesome newcomers would be enough to let him abscond this failing city altogether... Emperor Belos may even have use for him at the castle directly!</p>
<p>Fantasies detailing the life of an aristocrat in the direct employ and proximity of the Emperor were rudely interrupted by the sudden appearance of his scrawny secretary.</p>
<p>"Councillor, something requires your attention immediately!" The demon tapped his thick claws together nervously as he spoke. Nikoleye did so abhor people who danced around the point.</p>
<p>"Well, what is it?" He snarled, begrudgingly allowing visions of much grander living fade away from his mind's eye. "Spit it out already."</p>
<p>"Err, that is... Well, the Blight Residence..." The demon shrunk in on himself, and Nikoleye pinned him with a deadly glare that warned of the repercussions for further hesitance.</p>
<p>"What about the Blight Residence?" He asked carefully.</p>
<p>"... It's on fire, sir. The flames are beginning to spread through East-"</p>
<p>"<strong>Who else knows of this?!"</strong> Nikoleye launched out of his seat, a dozen trains of thought rumbling and crashing in his already busy mind. "Has the Bonesguard been ordered to attend to it yet?" He ran to his large window and startled the messenger demon waiting there while he pressed his face to the glass so as to better see the east side of the city.</p>
<p>It had likely been difficult to tell up until now between the usual haze of ash in the air, the early dawn lighting and the enormous wall that blocked that section of the city off, but the tell-tale hints of black smoke were becoming less obscure now.</p>
<p>"Th-that's just it sir... The other councillors have yet to awaken and Co-Captain Gus is in the planning room refusing interruptions." The little grey-green demon relayed the information like he was expecting to be thrashed. <em>Irresponsible nincompoops..!</em></p>
<p>"Where is Mawey?!"</p>
<p>Nikoleye stalked through the dapper halls of his abode until he reached the door that led into the greater building of Top Pick Boulevard. His little assistant scrambled to keep up.</p>
<p>"He is still patrolling the main road for the caravans from-"</p>
<p>An impatient fist slammed against the front door to Councillor Obligus' residence, cutting his assistant off. He rang the doorbell to be sure that his summon would be heard throughout the magically enlarged building section that his fellow lived in.</p>
<p>"Stay here, and tell that lazy blue wart what you told me."</p>
<p>Nikoleye was fuming the entire way to the Bonesguard Headquarters. It was a shame that it was so pricey to teleport these days. Upon reaching the office used to host large-scale battle operations he found that indeed, the doors were closed and sealed. A lit-up set of blue words commanded, "Do Not Disturb, Battle Planning in Progress." A stylized depiction of Co-Captain Gus’ smirking face adorned the large message.</p>
<p>“Councillor Nikoleye!” The tall demon in armour near the doors exclaimed. He saluted smartly and rushed to ask, “What brings you to the Bonesguard Headquarters so early, sir?”</p>
<p>“Open this door immediately, I will speak with the Co-Captain directly.” He snapped.</p>
<p>Although the guard looked ready to interject with some reason or other for delaying him, the withering glare Nikoleye sent him seemed to do well enough to remind him who had the true authority here.</p>
<p>With a gesture, the guard unlocked the doors and Nikoleye stalked into the larger room. He wasn't entirely sure whether to expect illicit activity or not, given that the Co-Captain's recent 'suspicious actions' were truthfully the result of Nikoleye's own plans. How was he to know that the Co-Captain, humans, and Blight children were all so buddy-buddy?</p>
<p>In any case, the young captain's lack of attention to the city outskirts seemed to be instead spent pouring over a set of maps and documents with several of his underlings. Armour, provisions, weapons and all sorts of other supplies were gathered on the enormous table tagged with notes detailing amounts needed.</p>
<p>“Nikoleye! Don’t think I’ve ever seen you up so early.” The overly-cheerful familiarity grated on his nerves somewhat. “I was just finalizing plans to submit for the latest excursion on the Boar demons’ territory now that we think we’ve located the source-“</p>
<p>"Yes, yes, fine." A quick scanning of the Co-Captain's immediate workspace did indeed showcase what looked to be a week-long expedition due west. The eager witch must have been hoping that finally acting against one of their greatest threats would put him back in favour with the council.</p>
<p>"Are you aware that black smoke is rising from East Residential? I can see it from my office, Captain. Reportedly the Blight Residence, which you have so recently become entangled with, has become the epicentre of a bonfire."</p>
<p>The young man that shared command of their city's defenses looked like he had accidentally swallowed some of the aforementioned fire, but then his demeanour immediately switched into that of the fervent militaristic professional he was lauded to be. He jumped into action without more than a few seconds to process the emergency and disregarded Nikoleye from that point on. The attending demons and witches were suddenly handling a dozen orders at once as they prepared to launch teams to the site of the fire immediately.</p>
<p>In due time, Nikoleye would visit the scene of the fire and dole out accusations as would be expected of him. But first there was a much more important, and delicate, matter to attend to.</p>
<p>
  <em>If this fire was part of an attack then it's very possible that the humans are involved. Which means they may not be as under lock and seal as I need them to be.</em>
</p>
<p>The thought of letting his ticket to fortune disappear right under his nose made him hurry his steps along that much more. He had just received orders from the Emperor, he could not lose the humans now!</p>
<p>"Gombee!" Nikoleye barked into his messenger demon upon storming into his office. "I want you to drop whatever you're doing and check on the humans being held under house arrest. I have reason to suspect they may have left the building at some point. You must see their faces before reporting back to me!"</p>
<p>He threw the little creature out the window and watched it right itself with an indignant squawk, then veer off sharply to find its latest recipient.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Decades, perhaps centuries, of history lifted into the air as mere smoke and ash to mix with the ever-present haze high above the east section of Bonesborough.</p>
<p>Blight Manor was reaching a fantastic peak; Reds, Oranges, Pinks of many varieties. It was difficult in places to distinguish the blaze from the colouring sky of a fresh dawn.</p>
<p>Flames eagerly consumed the once-proud structure and all things unfortunate enough to have been left inside. The stink of burning flesh poured off the tall stack of twisted bodies nearby, meticulously collected and ordered over time and now merely fuel. Plantlife both natural and magical in nature was quick to crumple and disappear with the ravenous heat. The forest and equally luxurious properties that loosely surrounded the inferno would soon fall prey to it if not stopped.</p>
<p>Few things had an appetite as endless as fire.</p>
<p>Among the disappearing scars of the front lawn that may have once told a clearer story of what had happened there, a body was nearly blackened to nothing. Nearby lay a warped sword it had once held, and soon would be all that was left.</p>
<p>There was no sign of any other, living or dead, in the crumbling building. However... one thing did yet move, slowly and uncoordinated, away into the dimness of the trees.</p>
<p>To see it would cause most people to furrow their brow in confusion. Very likely concern. It looked like a witch, although its movements were quite strange. As if something inside the witch-like form struggled to walk on legs it had never had before, or could not entirely control.</p>
<p>The figure was gravely injured. Yet she would pause in her jerky flight to bring further harm to her body.</p>
<p>She passed a tall tree, putting more distance between herself and the fire that would soon attract others. Desperate hands grabbed at a different tree, struggling to keep hold and stop from further departing the area. Then she pried herself away from it and continued on.</p>
<p>She scratched deeply at her skin. Deliberately stumbled. Punched her stomach so hard as to cough up blood and black ichor that hissed angrily, recoiling from the daylight, and retreated back into her mouth. Still, she managed to press forward. Still she tried to hinder herself. A terrible dichotomy of a monster that had no right to exist.</p>
<p>Emira Blight was not dead.</p>
<p>Though she so dearly wished she could be.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Clawing your way out of a nightmare was usually a piss-poor way to start the day, but that's just how it often went for Noceda. It took a little longer with searching hands that came up empty for her to remember that a certain important article of clothing she kept with her at all times was gone now. As was the curse scroll it had kept secret.</p>
<p>With a deep breath out through her nose, she rubbed at her eyes and temples in attempt to ward off the threatening headache. Even as exhausted as she was, her sleep had been fitful at best.</p>
<p>Noceda let her gaze drift to the hunched-over figure against the wall.</p>
<p>Blight was a mess. It was obvious from the moment she laid eyes on the witch with her older sister beating the hell out of her, but Noceda was slowly finding out that it was worse than it looked.</p>
<p>In all the time they had spent together, fought together, hurt together and healed together, Noceda thought she had seen all the different varieties of screwed up that Blight could wind up being during any given week. Hell, when she'd first found the witch, she was so close to feral that she could barely be considered an 'athlete' in the Las Pelvis fighting rings anymore. A few more weeks and she may have become no different than the poor creatures she was slaughtering for the entertainment of those who had enough wits left to still know how to take advantage of others.</p>
<p>This was different. Different was frightening. Different was terrifying, actually.</p>
<p>Noceda watched Blight doze for a while. She'd spent the whole night either sitting there, or pacing. She didn't want to be touched. Didn't want to talk. Didn't want to leave.</p>
<p>Viney had healed her corruptions so well when they arrived in Bonesborough, and whatever hellish results from her magic use at her folk's place would take hold slowly, but steadily. She still had her mind, for now, though something inside her seemed to be broken further than Noceda had ever seen from her yet.</p>
<p>It was frustrating. Completely unfair. She finally thought they had a handle on her progressions only to get kicked ten steps back. They had been <em>happy, </em>dammit. Lunch in the market, light-hearted joking, gentle caresses that didn't require caution and focus to maintain.</p>
<p>And then it all went to shit because some crazies couldn't let go. Where the fuck was she when Blight was being taken away? Trying to save the world, one glyph at a time?</p>
<p>Noceda wanted to keep punishing herself when slight motions pulled her out of angry reflection. Blight was only partially awake and delicately chewing at the skin that should have been covered by her tough claws. Just one of the many questions Noceda wanted to know the answer to, but Blight wasn't anywhere near ready to talk about.</p>
<p>An overly deep breath let the witch know that Noceda was about to stir without actually moving yet. She waited until Blight's eyes blinked all the way open before stretching slowly. Getting used to announcing her actions in subtle ways had been a given right from the start of their journey together.</p>
<p>"Didn't get much sleep, huh?"</p>
<p>Even if she hadn't bore witness to much of the witch's restlessness all night, the bags under Blight's eyes told the story anyways.</p>
<p>"Maybe try that stuff Viney gave you when you feel like it." Noceda suggested idly as she eased herself out of the simple bed. Too bad it didn't seem to work for humans; at least one of them could have gotten a decent night's rest.</p>
<p>"Want to get something to eat?"</p>
<p>Blight remained where she was and rested her arms on her knees. A little shrug was all she felt like offering. Her listlessness was like watching the sky and noticing the clouds hadn't moved for hours.</p>
<p>"I'm gonna get breakfast. I'll bring you back some?"</p>
<p>It was strange to feel guilty for forcing her hand like that. Noceda had picked up on Blight's complete disinclination to be left alone. She hadn't left the room other than to join Noceda on her quick trip to the washroom at some point in the night. Getting breakfast for herself likely meant that Blight would feel the need to come along even if she wanted to stay right where she was.</p>
<p>
  <em>If I ever see any her family alive again I can't honestly say I won't blow their heads off with a couple dozen glyphs.</em>
</p>
<p>As she suspected, the witch tightened her lips in annoyance and wouldn't look at Noceda as she arduously forced herself up to her feet.</p>
<p>        Noceda donned the little pair of slippers that had been provided by their demon caretaker from last night, but before she wandered far from their shared room she stopped in to check and see how Luz was doing.</p>
<p>Bathed in the gentle morning light that the rustic window let in, she looked rather peaceful as she slept. The tray that held her stuff had been moved and replaced with some biscuits and a cup of water.</p>
<p>Blight followed her cheerlessly as Noceda made her way to Amity's door and knocked softly. After a long moment it opened a little and the younger green-haired witch looked out at them, murmuring a small, "hello." She looked like she had been crying, but she didn't have gaping bags under her eyes so maybe she'd gotten some rest.</p>
<p>"We're off to find some food. Want me to bring you back anything to eat?" Noceda asked her, hoping she would accept.</p>
<p>With a little shake of her head, Amity looked like she was ready to close the door again and Noceda hastily added, "I'm gonna get our stuff from the house later. Your bag's there, maybe you have a snack from your world stashed away, huh?"</p>
<p>It was a paltry attempt to lighten the mood, but it did somewhat lift the beaten-down element in the young witch's face before she nodded her thanks and retreated once more.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>        The nifty case that kept food magically fresh and either cool or warm as needed had been stocked with breakfast-y items since last night. Noceda kind of wished they could have had one of these along on their travels, it would make meal storage a hell of a lot safer.</p>
<p>She carefully balanced her plate featuring eyes and bacon while exploring the dorm-like addition to the clinic. It seemed to have been built with the intention to house patients short-term in a calm, homey sort of setting. Nearly all the doors were closed and had an indicator that the room was currently in use. The care that was put into the purpose of the structure and the staff who kept up a quick pace as they went about their duties was pleasantly uplifting. It was a much needed reminder that Turm Isle hadn't completely fallen apart yet, and there were those who still fought to keep it that way.</p>
<p>Blight continued to trail along moodily after Noceda, glaring at anyone who got too close to either of them. At least she accepted one of the breakfast eyeballs. The witch didn't comment on Noceda's various ideas of how to sneak across the market and into North res where their safehouse was.</p>
<p>When they eventually ran into Viney, the healer witch certainly looked like she had been eager for them to emerge. Calling out a quick, "Meet me in ten minutes in room fourteen okay? Both of you! Bring little Blight if you can!", she hurried her patient along a bit faster than was strictly necessary and disappeared into an examination room.</p>
<p>Noceda didn't figure that Amity was very interested in leaving her room right now, and although Blight looked very much the same, she had another powerful healing spell to take. They stayed in Noceda's room just long enough to change into fresh clinic-provided clothes and then went to do some basic cleanup in the washrooms. The green-haired witch was literally dragging her heels by the time they had found the room Viney asked to meet them in and Noceda felt a bit guilty again at the discomfort on her face. Not enough to let Blight duck out of getting healed in favour of shutting up tightly in her room though.</p>
<p>        "So I've been going over a few things through-out the night that I got inspired to look at because of your weird bile sac situation, Blight."</p>
<p>The healer witch had launched right into it the moment she entered Examination Room 14 and saw them. Thankfully she had no problem talking about her ideas while she drained a cursed pen of its magic and re-shaped the energy into something more useful.</p>
<p>"I've had a theory that basically boils down to the use of magical energy not being the cause of corruption. It doesn't make enough sense. If we witches got corrupted whenever we cast spells, it should show up faster. Plus things that don't use magic wouldn't corrupt at all, right?"</p>
<p>Despite her ease with juggling theories and spellweaving, Viney seemed to be able to focus on only two out of three when it came to yammering on, casting spells <em>and</em> making sure she didn't aggravate her touchy patient, so Noceda took it upon herself to watch Blight carefully for any signs that she might lash out. Another blinding light that left after-images preceded the green-haired witch looking decidedly better, even if she wouldn't admit it right now.</p>
<p>Aside from her leg which had been completely rid of its awful slice wound from last night, Blight had still sported cuts, bruises and other souvenirs from her dickhead parents (and siblings now, as it turned out). After the sunbursts in Noceda's eyes faded, she was relieved to see them all gone. Viney's application was potent enough to prevent anything from scarring too, a nice bonus. Blight looked both relieved and annoyed that her nails had grown out to a respectable length, but not long or tough enough to be particularly useful for defending herself. That, Viney informed her, she would have to let grow out naturally.</p>
<p>Just as Noceda was going to ask Blight how she was feeling (and maybe get a read on if her throat had been healed enough to speak clearly), Viney's eager search for answers prompted the other witch to volunteer that particular little tidbit albeit more aggressively than either of them would have preferred.</p>
<p>"While I have you here Blight, I really need to take a close look at that build up. It didn't respond to the healing spell and that makes me think it's something other than corruption. If you could just let me take a tiny little piece of it-"</p>
<p>
  <strong>"No."</strong>
</p>
<p>It was the first proper thing Noceda had heard from the witch's mouth since leaving her at the safehouse two days ago. She didn't realize how much she missed hearing that voice up until it had been kept from her. Unfortunately, it came with an ironclad refusal that made Viney go from 'professional' to 'pleading' in seconds.</p>
<p>"Pleeeease Blight! If not then at least let me use a focused examination spell on you!" The healer witch changed her target to Noceda in hopes that she would be easier to convince. "I really think I'm on to a really important discovery here, I really really <em>really</em> need to confirm some things! This could lead to a better understanding of why corruption happens, maybe even a cure!"</p>
<p>Being caught in the middle of one witch's unbridled scientific enthusiasm and the other's strong desire to just be left alone... honestly sucked. Noceda knew her face was doing something weird while she uncomfortably tried to come up with a solution that would prevent anyone from getting murder-y.</p>
<p>"Okay, tell you what," Noceda began and Blight narrowed her eyes in sharp disapproval. "If you're examining with a spell, then it's not invasive, right? Like she wouldn't feel any pain?"</p>
<p>"No, for sure! I just gotta get a bit more touchy-feely than I would when I'm was just reading her latent energy." Viney radiated assurance, switching her gaze rapidly between them both. "I'd only be a couple minutes, I swear!"</p>
<p>Blight was glaring at her, likely feeling Noceda's little series of cave-ins going on with Viney's apparent desperation. She sighed, hating that it was up to her to try and convince the witch to do something she clearly didn't want to even if it could be critically important.</p>
<p>Noceda lifted her elbows to the table Blight was sitting on and perched her chin in her palms. She tried to look as disarmingly reassuring as she could while the witch pouted down at her. She was oddly reminded of her mother probably giving her a similar look as a kid when she had to have blood drawn for a test.</p>
<p>"She wouldn't ask if it wasn't helpful, right? Think you could bear just a little bit more healy-magic junk? Just a smidgeon?" Noceda tried gently, daring to slip just a tiny bit of her objective charm into the request. Blight's expression grew more petulant until she couldn't take the puppy eyes anymore and finally lay down on the table with a broadcasted huff.</p>
<p>Viney did well to contain her reaction and immediately spun up a spellcircle while Blight crossed her arms over her chest angrily and glared holes into the ceiling. Noceda went around the other side of the table from Viney so she could be close and offer any soothing that Blight might accept.</p>
<p>"Hey, maybe you'll end up giving Viney the key to fixing everything. You guys would end up being the heroes instead of me." She half-joked. It would be wonderful if that were the case though.</p>
<p>"Shut up." Blight growled, although hearing her almost sounding like her usual self had literally the opposite effect on Noceda. "You're just pissing me off."</p>
<p>"Here, fair trade. However long she takes you'll get in points for later, alright? You can make me do a naked headstand until I pass out or something equally awful, deal?"</p>
<p>It didn't make her smile, but Blight didn't seem to get any more irritated so that was a win. Viney cocked an eyebrow and stayed quiet as she placed her hands on Blight's chest over her bile sac. She had to edge her fingers under Blight's arm a little and that prompted her to grumpily drop them to her sides instead. Her fists were tight enough to crush stone.</p>
<p>"I'm casting it now." Viney said as both her hands and her eyes took on a faint shimmer. Little pulses of magic rolled off of her spellcircle and ran over Blight's upper body like tiny tidal waves.</p>
<p>Noceda wanted to keep talking to her but didn't want to accidentally press any more buttons, so she kept quiet. It was difficult, and with each passing second that the green-haired witch's expression minutely shifted to distressed Noceda felt more guilty.</p>
<p>At least Viney seemed to be having a good time. "Yes, yes, it <em>is</em> in layers, just like I thought... Blight, have you been using bile-recovering supplements recently?"</p>
<p>That question seemed to hit a sore spot, and Noceda wasn't sure how much longer Blight would agree to stay on the table.</p>
<p>Eventually she ground out an answer. "If forcing it down my throat counts as 'using', then sure."</p>
<p><em>That</em> response made Noceda want to hit someone until they both keeled over. Had Blight's parents been forcing her to take something while she was stuck there? Dammit, she wished Blight would just talk to her! At least then she'd know what to be angry about.</p>
<p>Viney did look somewhat abashed by the other witch's vehemence at least. "I'm sorry, I know some awful stuff must have gone down while you were missing. I'm almost done though, okay? Last question."</p>
<p>Since Blight didn't argue she seemed to take that as permission to keep going. "Did you have to take a lot of supplements? And was your bile sac full or not when you took them?"</p>
<p>Some deep breathing spaced out Viney's question and Blight's answer. That harrowing shame was creeping back into her face.</p>
<p>"They made me-... I had to spend all my magic. Then I drank the stupid potion. It was a bunch of times, I don't remember how many."</p>
<p>It was fortunate that all three of them seemed to come to the conclusion of 'Viney is done now' at the same time and the healer witch backed off with a mystified if not completely awed expression with her findings. Her eyes twitched back and forth slightly as she processed everything she had examined and heard. Noceda kept out of the way but attentive while the green-haired witch sat up and slid off the table. She wrapped her arms around herself and wouldn't look at either of them.</p>
<p>"I hope you got what you needed, Viney. Mind if we head out now?" Noceda said as a courtesy while she started walking towards the door. She was ready to go whether Viney was finished or not.</p>
<p>"Yeah, of course." The witch seemed a bit distracted as she held a hand over her own chest, then perked up before Noceda could actually open the door to exit. "Hey, you said you had notes from the Owl Lady at one of Willow's places, right? I'm gonna be heading up there to check in on her and do some glyphs, you could come along and grab your stuff. We could dress you up like one of my assistants, no one would bother us." She donned a sinister grin suddenly, "And if they did, I'd just threaten to ban them from my clinic. No one gets between a doctor and her patients."</p>
<p>That... actually wasn't a terrible idea!</p>
<p>"Yeah.. hey that sounds good to me. When are you going?" Noceda immediately felt lighter with the prospect of immediate retrieval of their bags. In addition to having all their things, it meant that they could leave Bonesborough practically any time there was an opening to do so.</p>
<p>"I can go right now. Actually, It's better I should, we're not too busy but that can change pretty damn fast. I'll get you some scrubs and a mask and stuff, you'll look just like any other nurse." Viney was positively cheerful, like a kid who had been presented with gifts and couldn't wait to open more.</p>
<p>Blight stepped in front of the other witch before she could join Noceda in leaving the room.</p>
<p>"I'm coming too."</p>
<p>Viney hesitated before she said, "Well, having one nurse with me when I usually go alone to Willow's is one thing, but two..?"</p>
<p>"I. Am. Coming. Too." Blight narrowed her eyes and tensed up, making Viney pale a bit and take a step back.</p>
<p>Noceda slipped herself between them before the tension could get any thicker. "Any chance we could just do two nurses and see how it goes? She's being, uh, extra-clingy this morning."</p>
<p>She got a shove for her efforts as she backed up, moving both herself and Blight out into the hall so that Viney could follow. The healer witch pointed with a sharp gleam in her eye.</p>
<p>"Actually, having seen you guys a few times now, I'm pretty sure that's separation anxiety."</p>
<p>Noceda finally got some real contact with her beloved green-haired witch, unfortunately it just consisted of her preventing Blight from smacking Viney.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"-anyways, I'm not afraid of the HGA."</p>
<p>Viney waved at passerby's in the market and smiled neutrally at guards and citizens alike in Central until they reached the edge of Willow's turf in North residential. The trip across the city was much faster when being pulled along in a giant pillbug-drawn carriage.</p>
<p>"You guys can stay as long as you like, and either it'll blow over or they figure it out and I tell them you guys are helping with the advanced healing glyph. Those dodgy old fucks have been gunning for Willow for a while now, and Gus is like their favourite soldier boy. Everything will calm down soon and no one will care about this week's flavour of rabble-rousers."</p>
<p>Despite the healing witch's bold words, Noceda couldn't help feeling uncomfortable as their carriage slowed down for a set of guards watching the rough divide between residential areas. She pulled her blue cap more snugly over her ears to hide them and glanced at Blight dressed in a similar nurse's outfit. She sported a large hairnet to make her distinctive mane less obvious and keep their presence low-key.</p>
<p>"Halt. What's your business in North Resid- oh! Healer Viney, I didn't see you there." One of the guards exclaimed as they stopped.</p>
<p>"Hey boss!" Viney waved genially down at him. "Just doing my usual for Willow. Since when did North Res get toll both?"</p>
<p>"Well, there's been some trouble lately with a group of newcomers." The guard answered, kicking his boot into the dirt like he wasn't very happy to be there. "We've been told not to let anyone in who isn't a resident. There's been a big fire in East Res and the higher-ups wanna find the newbies and question them about it. Also said something about there being humans involved, isn't that wild?"</p>
<p>"A fire? Has it been put out?" Viney's tone changed to one of concern and Noceda exchanged a surprised look with Blight. Could it be..?</p>
<p>The guard shrugged and kicked at the ground again. "Apparently one of the big ritzy houses down there got burnt to the ground, they barely stopped it from reaching the next ones over. Lot of ex-citizens out that way, we could have had a really big problem if the fire started flushing them crazies over to the wall all at once."</p>
<p>Noceda narrowed her eyes in thought.<em> If the fire was at Blight's old place then they may have noticed we aren't still at the safehouse. That would explain why they're looking for us. Those assholes had it out for me and Luz as it was, who knows what they'll do now</em>.</p>
<p>Memories of their interactions with the council and the vague threats of being locked up, killed or forced to give information about Willow rattled around in Noceda's head and she felt an icy chill run down her back. They had to get out of Bonesborough, and soon. She nudged Viney with her foot sharply.</p>
<p>"Yeesh, if it isn't boar demons or our own people trying to eat each other, it's random disasters, amirite?" Viney seemed to clue in to the general unrest coming from her co-passengers and she straightened up perhaps a bit too rigidly. "Anyways, I'm off to see Willow so she can keep the walls good and patched up!"</p>
<p>"Keep up the great work, Healer Viney. You know, Central hospital said that my little girl wasn't sick enough to require treatment last week, but when I took her to your clinic she got fixed right up! I gotta say, we're pretty thankful for-"</p>
<p>"Hey no problem," Noceda cut in, drawing all eyes to her, "That's what we healers are here for! Anywho, lots to do, people to treat, you know?" She grinned widely behind her medical mask and hoped the guard was as unobservant as he was unenthusiastic about his job.</p>
<p>"Right, of course! Don't let me keep you." He waved suddenly and signalled the bored-looking guard on the other side of the carriage. They didn't seem to be interested in any of what was going on and didn't even respond. Viney signalled to their giant pillbug to continue on towards the neighbourhoods that made up North Residential, specifically, towards the towering tree where Willow lived.</p>
<p>"And hey, keep yer eyes open for humans, alright? Send 'em our way if you see any!" The guard called as they passed by. Viney waved without looking, Blight seethed under her mask and hairnet, and Noceda slouched just a bit more in her seat.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>        "Hiya Miss Viney. Somethin' we can do for you?" The tall demon standing near the safehouse chirped. She and her partner looked to be the only ones around.</p>
<p>"Just getting artifacts for Willow's healing and the clinic. Gotta keep that wall strong, right?"</p>
<p>The guards agreed with good-hearted chuckles and Viney stayed outside to chat with them while 'her assistants gathered the artifacts next in the roster for use'. They were quick to start telling her all about rumours that the council was on the look-out for humans.</p>
<p>Once inside the house, Noceda pulled off her mask and began heading up the stairs.</p>
<p>"Blight, could you get our stuff from the rec room? I'll get Luz and Amity's things and then sweep the ground floor before we go."</p>
<p>The green-haired witch didn't really respond and just headed towards downstairs. When Noceda had been down there yesterday (before she and Luz broke out to see Willow), she recalled seeing Blight's bag on the bed and tossing her own to the floor while she tore around the place. She had distantly noted the strange absence of their clothing that had been scattered around. Hopefully Blight would be able to find most of it.</p>
<p>Up on the top floor, Noceda gathered anything in the younger teens' shared room that looked like it belonged to either of them. Rolling up the sleeping bags and picking up little overnight purses and Luz's cellphone and some snack wrappers reminded her of how nice everything had been just a couple days ago. Then seeing the big box of broken mirror glass tore into her little reverie.</p>
<p>The girls had been having so much fun that night. Running around and laughing, rough-housing too by the sound of it. When she and Blight heard the loud crash and shatter of what turned out to be the Doubling Mirror getting knocked over, she had been so afraid that something bad had happened. Then they raced up here to find two Luzs and Amity all staring like deer caught in headlights.</p>
<p>Noceda had been so relieved. Shaken up and owing Willow for a powerful artifact aside, everyone was fine. They left the girls to clean up their mess and she and Blight had gone back to their own room to celebrate a night of being allowed to let their guard down.</p>
<p>That was the problem though, wasn't it? They let their guard down. Got used to the safety. She was so <em>ready</em> to relax a bit and help Viney with her healing and let them all take a breather, hell... there was that whole 'side-quest' of going after the source of those damn pig demons.</p>
<p>Now here they were. Couple days later. Just a couple days. Blight was beaten down after Noceda promised never to let it happen again. Luz had almost died. Amity was hurt and withdrawn.</p>
<p>And her scroll was gone. Given to her younger counterpart from another world. Leaving her, Luz Noceda, idiot who couldn't keep the people she cared about safe, just as fragile as that big box of broken glass.</p>
<p>She wanted to punch a wall. It would hurt, and probably alarm Blight from two stories down though, so she didn't. More so for the second reason than the first.</p>
<p>With reduced energy and hating that she had the audacity to be depressed when it was everyone else that had been hurt, Noceda scanned the room once more. After she was sure she'd grabbed everything, she then found the washroom and scooped up the rest of the girls' stuff.</p>
<p>She went down the stairs to the ground floor and checked for anything they may have left there too. Blight watched her while she did. She knew the witch could tell she was upset even if she tried her damndest to hide it from her. She wanted to be strong, for both of them.</p>
<p>They left the safe house with a few random artifacts and the two witch's bags containing all of their stuff. Viney bid the guards a fond goodbye and they headed up the street to see Willow. None of them said anything for the short trip.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Being in Willow's presence made Blight simultaneously want to panic and slap some sense into herself.</p>
<p>
  <em>-dangerdangerdangerdangerdanger-</em>
</p>
<p>Her old friend was barely even conscious. And she had helped save her and little Amity from-... that place. Still, the overwhelming amount of magical pressure in the air crushed down upon her, body and mind alike.</p>
<p>"She's alright. Just really worn out." The healer witch dropped the rest of the way to the ground from where she'd been shimmying down Willow's stalk-like lower body. "She wasn't even awake when I checked in on her last night. I can't remember the last time she actually slept, didn't know she could still do it."</p>
<p>"Can I get closer to say thanks for helping with Blight?" Noceda asked the healer quietly. "I don't know if we'll-... We might not get to see each other for a while."</p>
<p>"Yeah, go ahead."</p>
<p>She watched as Noceda approached the giant stalk of a body and began murmuring quietly to it.</p>
<p>        Blight didn't know what happened exactly while she was.. preoccupied. Why Willow was so tired. Why Noceda's friend Gus was in trouble. Why they had to be careful about the HGA of all things. She didn't want to know right now. There was too much crammed into her head as it was.</p>
<p>Twelve hours ago, or something like that, she had been fighting for her life to get away from <em>that place.</em> The moment she hit the grass of the lawn outside... she knew she would <em>die</em> before she let herself be dragged back in.</p>
<p>
  <em>nooo~ no. that's not true. if your precious perfect Luz hadn't been able to follow you out then you'd go right back in to save her. you're pathetic.</em>
</p>
<p>Blight wanted to latch onto herself and squeeze the thoughts out of her head. She couldn't show this weakness to the healer witch. Or Willow.</p>
<p>
  <em>But I'll show it to Noceda. I always end up showing her. I don't want her to see it but I can't help it...</em>
</p>
<p>Her human, no... Noceda seemed to be done with whatever she was saying to Willow and turned to speak to the healer witch again. It took everything in Blight to look up and meet the tiny glowing slivers that showed her old friend was still partially awake. If she really even had a consciousness left.</p>
<p>She didn't know how to say 'thank you'. She didn't want to need saving. She hated being so <em>titan-fucking dependant</em> on everyone else all the time.</p>
<p>Still though... she gave the tiniest tilt of her chin up at towering monstrosity that used to be the little girl she played with. Took lessons with. Betrayed. Abandoned.</p>
<p>
  <em>If I had stayed in that house any longer... I don't think there would have been anything left worth saving. It still might be too late for me.</em>
</p>
<p>She didn't know exactly what had happened to allow Noceda the opportunity to get her out of that place, but Willow had been a part of it. Without Willow's help, it was very possible that she would still be trapped there. With them.</p>
<p>With <em>her.</em></p>
<p>Those glowing green slivers closed slowly, shutting off their eerie light. Then they opened again, ever so slightly. Blight hoped that meant Willow was aware of her gratitude, as loathe as she was to have it in the first place.</p>
<p>
  <em>you don't need to thank her. surpass her. never need her to save you ever again. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>never need her for anything.</em>
</p>
<p>Blight startled when she realized she was staring at Noceda now, and the human was staring back. She snorted and crossed her arms, wanting to turn away from the lot of them. The thought of leaving herself so vulnerable was terrifying though, so instead she glared somewhere near Noceda's newly retrieved boots.</p>
<p>They left Willow's plant-infested home and got back into the carriage waiting for them. The smell of the giant bug that pulled them made her want to gag. She didn't know how the others could stand it.</p>
<p>The ride back was uneventful. The idiots that stood around 'guarding' various places in the city were useless as far as she could tell. Noceda and the healer chick talked about leaving Bonesborough, and how terrible it was that they hadn't figured out the stronger healing glyph. One of them suggested trying to teach <em>her</em> to cast an advanced healing spell. As if she was capable of doing something like that.</p>
<p>Sitting so close to Noceda in the rickety, bumpy carriage was something like treading water for her. The urge to latch on to the human and empty herself of everything so that she would <em>know</em> was so strong. It kept her breathing.</p>
<p>But the sweet, burning need to push her away, maybe end her and see if it stopped even a part of her misery... it was strong too. No matter what Noceda's face was doing anymore, it all looked so frightening to her. She couldn't stop checking though.</p>
<p>She subtly watched the human out of the corner of her eye. Noceda was talking about leaving the city to meet up with the owl lady. See if there was a way to send the kids back to their world.</p>
<p>What if there wasn't a way? What if those kids were just as trapped in this cruel world as any of them? Maybe then she would finally stop searching for a happy ending. Throw aside the heroic dreams and stash them all away in a cave somewhere, the owl lady, the kids, her... Safe and quiet with warm embraces until the island rips itself apart and there's nothing left.</p>
<p>Blight slouched in her seat, burying her clawless but still capable hands further into her armpits. She ignored Noceda's soft questioning voice. She couldn't look at her.</p>
<p>Shame and anger and hurt battled behind the irritated mask she poured so much energy into keeping up. It made her feel brittle. All too close to breaking. The world was ending all around them and the only thing she cared about sat right next to her, completely oblivious of the fact that what Blight wanted most of all was for her journey to fail.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Gus had left a message for Noceda at the clinic. It was a relief to see that he'd made it back into his routine without any problems.</p>
<p>"He says he has a plan to run by us." Noceda dismissed the little messenger demon after she'd listened to the short recording. "He'll stop by later while getting a heal. I'm pretty sure he means to get us out of Bonesborough." She relayed the message's contents to Blight so that the witch would know to expect his presence later today. She was occasionally glancing at Noceda out of the corner of her eye. Noceda was used to her fidgeting, but she was doing that an awful lot.</p>
<p>Leaving the city meant that they could get far away from the mess that had been kicked up with the kidnapping and subsequent rescue, although it also meant that they would be vulnerable and on the road again with a whole host of extra traumas to struggle through. Neither situation was ideal at all.</p>
<p>She checked in with Luz and Amity again. The former was still asleep although the cup of water was empty, hopefully meaning she had woken up at some point. The latter was still concerningly reserved but she was grateful to receive her bag. Noceda let her know that all of Luz's stuff had been tossed in there too, so she'd need to fish it out at some point for when the other girl woke up properly.</p>
<p>For the moment, Noceda just pondered their next move while she wolfed down some lunch. She sat on the floor and leaned against the wall of her borrowed room, Blight doing the same thing nearby.</p>
<p>
  <em>We have some time, probably, to at least get ourselves supplies and some more rest before we go. We can't take too long though. I've got a bad feeling about those council guys coming after us. The sooner we get Owlbert to show us to Eda the sooner we can figure out if she has a way to get Luz and Amity home. And if not, then hopefully we can keep the kids safe wherever she's holed up.</em>
</p>
<p>Yeah, or maybe not and they were just heading into another horror show featuring her old mentor this time.</p>
<p>But what the fuck else was she supposed to do?</p>
<p>Noceda thumped her head against the wall rhythmically but not hard enough to really make any noise. The feeling of her scalp against the smooth wall was still a bit novel. She was more used to her beanie cushioning her from the bark of trees.</p>
<p>She noticed then that Blight had been subtly shifting closer. The witch was still sparse with her words and at best picked a little from Noceda's plate instead of getting a proper meal for herself. Another little movement brought her half a seat closer and if she was seeking reassurance then Noceda would be over the moon to provide it.</p>
<p>After dropping her arched knee and letting her right arm lay lax at her side instead of perched in thought, Blight eventually sidled up to her. Once again she seemed to have to confirm something in Noceda's face and only then did she let her head rest on Noceda's shoulder. The hands laying between them slowly weaved their fingers together just enough to not be easily shifted apart.</p>
<p>"Hey there." Noceda murmured gently. Blight didn't say anything for a while, seemingly content for now to just be.</p>
<p>She wondered if maybe the witch would nap a bit, and if so how she could convince her to get some proper sleep on the bed. That notion flitted away when she heard the sniffling start up.</p>
<p>Noceda ever-so-carefully let her fingers curl up over Blight's knuckles, not quite holding her hand in place but letting her know she was there. The witch returned the gesture with a tighter grasp, and Noceda responded in turn the same way until they were clasped together quite securely.</p>
<p>"I think..."</p>
<p><em>Yes? God, tell me what you think Blight, please. Just let me in,</em> Noceda mentally pleaded. She wanted so badly to know what was going on behind those golden eyes of hers.</p>
<p>"I think I'm... going to go away for a while. I can feel it coming."</p>
<p>The words themselves had a few possible meanings, and she waited (im)patiently for Blight to elaborate.</p>
<p>"A little bit of me is slipping away all the time now. Your glyphs aren't going to be able to keep up."</p>
<p>She could see Blight turn her face towards her more, and Noceda hoped that meeting her gaze wouldn't be a mistake. It took a few seconds for those watery golden orbs to actually meet her own.</p>
<p>"Will you stay with me? Even if I'm... somewhere else?" She whispered the last few words and lowered her eyes. "I don't want to be alone with this."</p>
<p>Noceda could feel her heart twisting with the words. Blight was afraid of her lucidity disappearing faster than she could heal it. The confession was damning evidence that what courage and faith she still clung to was rapidly eroding away.</p>
<p>As gently as she could, Noceda leaned in and pressed a tender kiss to Blight's forehead. With a fragile sigh, the witch lay her head back on Noceda's shoulder and closed her eyes. Noceda rested her cheek against her mint green hair.</p>
<p>"Always." Noceda breathed softly to her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A tentative few knocks on the door pulled Amity out of her thoughts. She drew in a few deep gasps as quietly as she could. It felt like she hadn't been breathing for a while and only now remembered that she still needed to.</p>
<p>
  <em>"Hey Amity? Me and Blight are doing some planning about what we want to do next. Gus says he has some stuff he wants to let us know about and, well, I didn't know if you would feel like joining us, but you're welcome to if you want. We're in Blight's room, the uh, door across from Luz's."</em>
</p>
<p>Did she feel like going to their meeting?</p>
<p>Not really, but what Blight and Noceda did affected her. And Luz. They might be getting ready to leave Bonesborough, and that meant she would have to choose between going with them or staying. She didn't want to be left in the dark with everyone else's intentions.</p>
<p>Amity untangled herself from the simple sheet of her bed and picked out the little mirror from her overnight bag. In her opinion, she looked terrible. But at least her eyes weren't red and puffy anymore. She fixed her hair and took a few deep breaths.</p>
<p>A few sips of water and a quick check around the room for.. whatever it was she needed to check, and she slipped out the door to find the one across from Luz's room slightly ajar. Familiar voices floated welcomingly from it. She patted her shirt down to try and mitigate the wrinkles before going in. This outfit was supposed to be for when she and the other students toured the Grand Mal Caesar. It ran the entirety of The Neck and there were at least a dozen things she had wanted to see with Luz in the famous structure during their school trip.</p>
<p>
  <em>Stop stalling.</em>
</p>
<p>Amity didn't really know what it felt like to walk into a classroom after everyone had already been seated, but she figured it probably didn't feel like this. Noceda was sitting on the edge of the unused bed with Blight leaning against the wall nearby, and Gus was sitting backwards on the chair that each room had. He looked like he was in mid-animated gesture when Amity had cautiously peeked in.</p>
<p>"Hey Amity!" Noceda looked surprised but pleased to see her, which... was kinda nice she supposed. "I brought the chair from my room in case you joined us, but, feel free to do whatever."</p>
<p>It felt way too exposing to sit out where the chair had been left, so she picked it up and brought it much closer to the wall near the door and then sat on it. Somehow Amity had forgotten that meeting with the others also meant being in the same room with Blight, and a whole current of emotions were pressing up against something inside her. She didn't know right now why seeing the older witch frightened her, or made her feel guilty. Or inadequate. But she did feel those things and it made her want to leave although she couldn't since she was already here and agreed to sit with them and she wished they would just resume talking about whatever it was they were talking about-..</p>
<p>Her thoughts cut off when Gus came to her rescue. Amity just listened to his voice and let the soothing tones of one that wasn't her own drift through her mind.</p>
<p>"So yeah, um, not sure if you guys have heard about it yet, but turns out Blight's place is... well, it's pretty much gone." Amity watched him rub awkwardly at the back of his neck like he wasn't sure how the news would be received. What could he mean by that though, how could it be gone?</p>
<p>"Yeah, me and Blight were out earlier today with Viney and some of the guards were talking about it. Only that there was a big fire and stuff. Did you get to see it?" Noceda asked, her arms hanging off her knees and hands clenching eagerly. Amity was glad no one was looking at her and tried not to fidget.</p>
<p>"See it? I led the team to put it out! I was so busy in the war room that I didn't even realize it was happening until one of the councillors bursts in and starts going on about it. I'll probably hear about not having adequate patrols along the east wall or something later, but anyways that's not important!" He waved his hands dismissively and glanced at each of them in turn, making Amity shrink back in her seat a bit when his eyes met hers. He was just including her in the discussion. Why did it feel like she was being pinned to the wall?</p>
<p>"So long story short, I've been spinning the narrative a little and kinda been making it seem like boars may have slipped in through South res or washed up on the beaches. I mean, we probably caused that fire last night but like, <em>everything</em> went up in smoke and I figured that as long as there isn't evidence that we were there, then maybe I could use it to our advantage!" His voice sounded eager although a note of uncertainty did make its way in there.</p>
<p>"You don't think those council guys are going to try and pin this on us? Or you, or Willow?" Amity heard Noceda ask. She dared to look up at her. Why the older teen thought the HGA would act so hostile towards them was a mystery to her. They were supposed to be the people in charge of the city now, right? Back in her world they threw parties and settled disputes over property. Noceda talked about them like they were some kind of shady organization.</p>
<p>"They don't have much to work with, I'll tell you that." Gus replied with a wry look. "Illusion magic is untraceable and all that's left of Willow's plants are a bunch of caved-in holes. Really all we could find was Abomination magic, a <em>lot</em> of Oracle magic, and well, obviously, fire magic. So it could have been anyone there last night and the Blights were fending them off!"</p>
<p>"Was anyone still there?"</p>
<p>The room went quiet for a moment with Blight's words. Amity watched Gus' face since he seemed to be so focused on the other witch at the moment and unlikely to notice her. He had that uncertainty from before in his expression.</p>
<p>"There was a huge collection of corpses off to the side of the house, though we think those have been there for a while. Don't know how the smell didn't knock us on our asses last night honestly." He was dancing around the answer, Amity could tell. He really didn't need to, she doubted that Blight was checking to make sure everyone was alive and well.</p>
<p>"We found Alador's body. What was left of it." He finally relented. Amity could feel the intensity of Blight's eyes second-handedly. "There... weren't any other bodies that we could find."</p>
<p>It didn't tell them much. Other than, 'your Mom and siblings aren't confirmed to be dead', at least. Whatever Blight may have been feeling with the known and unknown states of her family was locked up tightly behind her thinned lips and hard gaze.</p>
<p>The silence dragged on for a moment or two, none of them quite ready to follow up that little declaration. Ever the one to soldier on though, Noceda cleared her throat before things got too awkward.</p>
<p>"You said you were working on some kind of a plan?" She asked. Gus looked grateful for the opportunity to continue.</p>
<p>"Yeah! Well, since I wasn't sure if you guys wanted to stay here on the down-low until things maybe settle down, I was up a lot of last night putting together the rest of what I needed for the trip out to where the boar demons are coming from."</p>
<p>Amity remembered that whole deal. The boar demons were constantly attacking Bonesborough and everyone who came near this whole area. Luz wanted to help with the plan to go investigate their source and maybe put a stop to them. Then Amity got mad and ran away like a baby.</p>
<p>She clenched her fists and blinked rapidly to fend off how the thoughts were making her body react.</p>
<p>"You see, I know the council wants those boars gone as badly as anyone, so I knew that if I planned to do the expedition soon, like really soon, then that would probably get them to chill out a bit regarding me helping you and little Luz with finding these two." He gestured to both herself and Blight. Noceda held up a hand to stop him.</p>
<p>"Wait, Willow is fried right now. If you leave, who's going to stick up for her if someone tries to make a move?" Noceda asked with furrowed brows. Amity would have rather she asked, 'who would stick up for <em>us</em> if someone tried to take us against our will again'.</p>
<p>"Nah, that's the beauty of it." Gus's energy regarding his plan seemed to warrant flipping his chair back around to sit in it properly and leave plenty of room for his arms to flail around while he spoke.</p>
<p>"I didn't plan for this fire, obviously, but it's helpful. The council may be all suspicious of Willow and stuff but we all have much bigger problems. Since I'm bringing the attention back to <em>actual</em> issues, me taking off with a bunch of the Bonesguard makes sense to literally everyone. Council can't raise a fuss because then they'd have to explain why we're suddenly not trying to handle the boars anymore, and with so many of us fighters gone to finally lead an attack..." Gus was twirling both hands like he was trying to reel the answer out of them. It frustrated Amity because she felt like she was missing something, so asking her for the conclusion was unfair.</p>
<p>"They're gonna need everyone left to defend the walls." Noceda finished slowly, raising her eyebrows in a genuinely impressed look. It still didn't explain how that was supposed to help them. Amity felt her eyes start to burn and she wanted to leave. But then they would probably ask her why.</p>
<p>"Right!" Gus cheered. Amity avoided his look when he tried to include her again. It seemed to give him pause for a moment and she almost took that chance to dart out of the room despite how embarrassing it would be. He continued anyways.</p>
<p>"With a bunch of us leaving at once and everyone prioritizing the city borders while we're gone, <em>you</em> guys can choose what to do in the meantime."</p>
<p><em>Huh?</em>  Now that made Amity pause instead. She didn't quite understand what or how the events were leading up to this, but when Noceda began speaking again and it was the same thought that led her to join this meeting in the first place, she felt like a lot of things had suddenly fallen into line and made sense again.</p>
<p>"We can leave with you and your fighters.. or we can stay here at Viney's with less prying eyes to worry about."</p>
<p>Although making sense and not being frightening were two different things. Now that she was on the same page as the rest of them, this was where Amity's heart began to pound too fast. Blight and Noceda were going to make a choice and then she would have to as well.</p>
<p>"Yep." Gus nodded. "Either way, you guys get some time to recover from the whole kidnapping thing. If you choose to come along then you have lots of us watching your back. You don't have to fight with us, we were going to do this even before you four showed up. By the time we're back, eeeh," he rocked a hand back and forth, "Maybe everything will have cooled down."</p>
<p>"We need to find Eda." Noceda said firmly.</p>
<p>There it was. The last step they had been taking before everything fell off the witch's staff. Eda the Owl Lady, who may or may not know how to get her and Luz home but seemed to be their best chance. There was absolutely no guarantee she could help, but wasn't the alternative just to... give up? Stay in this world?</p>
<p>"Do you have any way of finding her?" Gus asked carefully. Noceda nodded slowly.</p>
<p>"We have her palisman. He says he can lead us to her and that she's still alive. Me and Blight," she glanced at the witch and her ears perked up with her name, "We're gonna figure things out like we always do. In the meantime, we need to see if there's a way to get Amity and Luz home."</p>
<p>She flinched with the sudden attention. Noceda was sending her a reassuring smile, but Gus seemed unsure. Blight looked... it was hard to tell. Amity felt frozen.</p>
<p>"So.. what are you thinking then? You want to leave and go find Eda?" Gus asked.</p>
<p>Noceda was tapping at her knees in thought while she slowly replied, "I think we need to get one more crucial bit of information here. Hold on a moment."</p>
<p>Amity thought that perhaps she meant to go wake Luz up, it did seem like she had just walked across to the girl's door and went in after all. But then she came back with none other than Owlbert.</p>
<p>She presented him proudly to the rest of them, and turned to Amity with the little palisman cupped in her hands.</p>
<p>"Since Owlbert knows where Eda is, then maybe we can get a heading from him. 'X marks the spot', and see how close that is to where you're going Gus. Eda can't be too far away, maybe we'd all be heading in the same direction?"</p>
<p>With the potential to have his friend with him longer, Gus brightened up and twirled his finger to summon what looked like a rough topographical map of this section of the island. He appraised his illusion and focused in more on the area around Bonesborough, then he added more detail. There was a rough high-lighted spot probably a few days west where the land began to steeply rise up into The Leg. It was marked with an angry porcine creature glaring out at them all.</p>
<p>Apparently satisfied, Gus looked over at Owlbert expectantly.</p>
<p>"Well buddy, think you can point out where Eda is?" Noceda asked with a smile. The little palisman blinked at the illusionary map and fluttered above it, circling a few times. He hooted ponderously and then touched back down on Noceda's shoulder with a sad look.</p>
<p>Noceda looked crestfallen. "What's wrong Owlbert? Did you forget where she is or something?"</p>
<p>Owlbert peered around the room at each of them and then flitted over to stand on Amity's knee and look up at her imploringly. She only jumped a little bit with the sudden contact.</p>
<p>
  <em>I do not understand maps.</em>
</p>
<p>His voice seeped into her head, and altogether it felt like too much too soon. Amity must have been projecting her discomfort pretty clearly to him because he hunched down to appear even smaller than he already was and Amity could feel his confusion at her response. She could hardly even register the tiny weight of his little bird feet but having his mind linked to hers was nearly intolerable.</p>
<p>She glanced up at the three other sets of eyes now on her. They probably didn't mean to pressure her, but she felt it anyways.</p>
<p>
  <em>Suck it up, Amity. You were able to reach out with him and break off Mothe- that lady's oracle magic connection in battle. This should be easy. Stop being a baby.</em>
</p>
<p>Amity swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to steady herself. She hated that she was reacting this way. Owlbert was a <em>friend.</em></p>
<p>"H-he says... he doesn't know how to read maps." Egh, her voice sounded so reedy.</p>
<p>Before the others could properly respond to that, she felt Owlbert about to speak to her again and she braced for it.</p>
<p>
  <em>I can show you what I saw.</em>
</p>
<p>"But he can show us what he saw." <em>Immediately</em> she regretted the words. The little palisman probably meant to show her by directly playing his memories in her mind and she was <em>so not ready for that right now. </em>But Noceda looked so relieved and Gus looked excited...</p>
<p>It took everything not to burst into tears right at that moment. Owlbert looked positively ashamed and like he wanted to fly away. Noceda was saying something to her but she couldn't really hear it.</p>
<p>Blight called the little palisman over to her then.</p>
<p>Amity did everything she could think of to calm down. She breathed in deeply, and deliberately slowed her breaths. She recited runes. Counted to twenty and back.</p>
<p>By the time she felt like she wouldn't break into a thousand hot shards, Blight was projecting a little illusion-cast of what Owlbert must be showing her in a mind link. Noceda and Gus were watching the stylized, swooping images and it reminded her of when she once showed Luz the story of-.. of..</p>
<p>"Okay hold up, that's the old Ridgeworth tower." Gus said animatedly."I know how to get there. I think he was flying south before he hit that. Hey Blight, could you ask him to start over? I don't need to see what route he took to get from there to here."</p>
<p>"There to Eda's, actually." Noceda said.</p>
<p>"Even better reason, then."</p>
<p>Amity cautiously looked over the rest of them. Blight and Gus were concentrating, but Noceda seemed distracted. She looked like she kept wanting to glance over at Amity and was trying hard not to. The bitter sense of failure twisted in her stomach and even though, logically, she knew no one was upset at her, Amity felt like she was going to be punished. Worse even... she felt like she deserved it.</p>
<p>With a sharp snap of fingers the opportunity to leave without being noticed was gone. Gus was fiddling with his map and a bright green path began to snake its way out of Bonesborough due west.</p>
<p>"I can tell you with a good deal of certainty that according to your little friend, Eda's somewhere around here. Even if my party takes the same route as last time we did to get to where we think the boars are, you guys would just branch off here. And there's only like, I dunno six or seven hours hike between those two points. Way faster if you take the staff. We could go all the way with you if you wanted, or wait until you came back, no problem." He sounded so confident.</p>
<p>The door burst open and Amity <em>shrieked. </em></p>
<p>"I found you guys! Guess what, I figured some things out!" The healer witch, Viney, didn't seem to notice <em>at all</em> that she had startled a few of the room's occupants. She did take one look at the map and instantly deflate though.</p>
<p>"Aw damn... you're really planning on leaving, aren't you?" She wilted and Noceda clapped a hand on her shoulder apologetically.</p>
<p>"Me and Blight will be. You'll still have a place for Amity and Luz if they want to stay until we get back, yeah?"</p>
<p>There was that choice again, stated clearly for her and the world. The older teens were going to leave and Amity would either have to stay here or go with them.</p>
<p>"You'll be coming back? Oh that's a relief. Hey Gus!"</p>
<p>"Hey Viney. You got my request for some healers to come with us into glorious battle?"</p>
<p>"Yeah, but.. Noceda are you going with him?"</p>
<p>"Yeah, looks like it."</p>
<p>"Blight too?"</p>
<p>Amity didn't hear anything. She was still trying to get her heart to slow down. Someone must have nodded though.</p>
<p>"That's perfect! Gus, I'll send some of my best with you. You guys know Amelia, I'll ask her if she can go. Blight, you're gonna need some extra love on the healing front, those layers in your bile sac are gonna be a bitch like you've never seen once they start dissolving. And Noceda, you can study all the healing spells they use during the trip, yeah?"</p>
<p>This woman was like a whirlwind. Something akin to annoyance flashed through Amity just then but, for some reason... it wasn't all bad.</p>
<p>She suddenly missed seeing Luz's face. She missed it very, very much.</p>
<p>The torrent of voices in the room bled together as plans and questions and concerns were exchanged. For the moment however, everyone else's thoughts weren't so important and Amity rose out of her chair to calmly leave the room.</p>
<p>It only took a couple seconds to cross the short distance between doors. What the barrier represented was still daunting to her, and yet the need to place her hand on the knob and turn it was stronger than her trepidation. So she did.</p>
<p>The mid-evening rays from outside were filtering in through the fluttery little curtains. They left speckled-glowing patterns across the floor and the bed that Luz sat up in. She had been looking out the window.</p>
<p>Amity's heart picked up again nervously as Luz turned her head to see her standing there, and she was suddenly not sure at all what to do. The girl's expression couldn't be called a smile, but there was recognition in her eyes.</p>
<p>"Um.. hi. Luz. Can I come in?" She felt incredibly silly. And scared.</p>
<p>A small nod granted her the will to move, so she entered and gently shut the door behind her.</p>
<p>"Hey Amity." The voice was soft. So soft.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She felt the urge to start tearing up again, but... it wasn't all bad.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~ * ~</p>
<p> </p>
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